James Gardner

Physics PhD Candidate

Email: james.gardner <at> anu.edu.au

Web: www.jamesgardner.info

About Me

Hi, I’m James, and I’m a physics PhD candidate. I’m currently visiting Caltech (The California Institute of Technology) for 3 years as part of my PhD at The Australian National University’s Centre for Gravitational Astrophysics.

My research interests include Quantum Metrology, Quantum Squeezing, and Gravitational Waves. I enjoy discovering a simple understanding of physical phenomena from complex analytic models. I believe in Open Research and Open Source. My CV is available as a PDF here.

My current office is Room 356, Cahill Center for Astronomy and Astrophysics. Do drop in!

Education

Australian National University (ANU)

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) in Physics

2022 - present

I started a Physics PhD at ANU in June 2022. I’m currently closely collaborating with Yanbei Chen and others on an 3-year visit to Caltech in Pasadena CA, USA. My research involves theoretical work in quantum optomechanics for precision metrology.

Australian National University (ANU)

Bachelor of Philosophy (Honours) in Science with First Class Honours in Physics

2018 - 2021

During my time at ANU, I enjoyed learning through asking many fruitful questions and found good company and help from my peers.

My First Class Honours thesis is available here, in which I explored a novel use of quantum squeezing to improve the sensitivity of gravitational-wave detectors (called Nondegenerate Internal Squeezing). The slides for my final Honours talk to the ANU School of Physics are available here.

Employment

Australian National University (ANU)

Research Officer Grade 5/6 (full time)

2022

I worked as a research assistant at CGA on benchmarking future gravitational-wave detector networks to assess the science case for a detector in Australia. This involved Python programming using an existing package (gwbench) and Bash scripting to interact with Swinburne’s OzStar supercomputer. A paper is in preparation on this work.

Awards and scholarships

  • ARC Centre of Excellence for Gravitational Wave Discovery (OzGrav) Travel Grant - 2022
  • Yale Physics PhD offer (with funded tuition and stipend) - 2022
  • Australian Government Research Training Program Domestic Scholarship - 2022
  • ANU Supplementary Scholarship - 2022
  • The John Carver Physics Prize - 2021 (awarded in October 2022). Rewards academic excellence in the ANU Physics Honours specialisation.
  • ANU First Class Honours - 2021
  • ANU Achievement Prize for Third Year Physics - 2020
  • ANU Dean’s Science Education Commendation Award - 2020
  • ANU National University Scholarship - 2018–2021

Publications

  • James W. Gardner, Min Jet Yap, Vaishali Adya, Sheon Chua, Bram J. J. Slagmolen, David E. McClelland, 2022, Nondegenerate internal squeezing: an all-optical, loss-resistant quantum technique for gravitational-wave detection, Phys. Rev. D 106, L041101. https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevD.106.L041101
  • James W. Gardner, Hannah Middleton, Changrong Liu, Andrew Melatos, Robin Evans, William Moran, et al., 2022, Continuous gravitational waves in the lab: recovering audio signals with a table-top optical microphone, American Journal of Physics 90, 286 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1119/10.0009409

Engagement with the research community

Presentations and posters

  • LIGO-Virgo-KAGRA collaboration (LVK) joint meeting of the advanced interferometer configurations (AIC), quantum noise (QN), and laser and auxiliary (LA) working groups - March 2023, Optimal measurement for detuned–cavity based quantum metrology with applications to gravitational-wave detection.
  • American Physical Society (APS) March Meeting - March 2023, Optimal measurement for detuned–cavity based quantum metrology with applications to gravitational-wave detection.
    • (Poster also presented)
  • Gordon Research Conference (GRC) - Mechanical Systems in the Quantum Regime - June 2022, Two-mode squeezing for gravitational-wave detection. Presented jointly with Mr Daniel Gould.
    • (Poster also presented), Nondegenerate internal squeezing: an all-optical, loss-resistant quantum technique for gravitational-wave detection.
  • LVK joint meeting of AIC, QN, LA working groups - March 2022, Nondegenerate internal squeezing.
  • OzGrav data/astrophysics meeting - February 2022, Continuous gravitational waves in the lab: recovering audio signals with a table-top optical microphone.
  • LVK interferometer simulation working group - December 2020, Verification of the newly-added non-linear element in Finesse for optical modelling of advanced gravitational-wave detector configurations.
  • Various internal presentations to the ANU Centre for Gravitational Astrophysics.

Presentation slides and posters are available upon reasonable request.

Membership

  • The Australian Institute of Physics (AIP) 2022–present
  • The Cosmic Explorer Consortium (ANU group) - 2022–present
  • The LIGO Scientific Collaboration (LSC - OzGrav - ANU group) - 2022–present
  • The Centre for Gravitational Astrophysics - ANU - 2020–present
  • The Australian Research Council’s Centre of Excellence for Gravitational Wave Discovery (OzGrav, ANU Node) - 2020–present

Media

Outside of academia

When I am not working in the quantum realm, I enjoy playing games and music with friends. I love storytelling and Dungeons & Dragons. I play the trombone (jazz) and piano accordion (folk) and adore Don Ellis’s Autumn. When the weather is fine, you may also find me resting on a mountainside.

James Gardner - james.gardner <at> anu.edu.au - References are available upon reasonable request