Thomas Bilitewski - Theoretical Quantum Physics

Thomas Bilitewski, PhD
Assistant Professor
Stillwater, OK
Office: 248 Physical Sciences
Email: thomas.bilitewski@okstate.edu
ORCID: 0000-0002-9971-1835
Arxiv: Article list
Group Page: Lab Website
Experts Directory: OSU Profile
About me
I am an Assistant Professor of Physics at Oklahoma State University, leading a Theoretical Quantum Science group. My group works at the intersection of atomic-molecular-optical (AMO) and condensed matter theory, broadly investigating quantum many-body physics, quantum simulation, and entanglement generation.
A driving motivation of our theoretical work is to provide insightful explanations for experimental results and actionable proposals for the exploration of fundamental physics. We maintain close collaborations with leading experimental groups, and our work is guided by novel experimental capabilities in ultracold atomic and molecular platforms. Current research focuses on squeezing phase transitions and quantum metrology, quantum many-body scars and ergodicity breaking, topological phenomena in dipolar systems, and spatio-temporal control of quantum dynamics.
Before joining OSU, I held postdoctoral positions at JILA (CU Boulder) in the group of Ana Maria Rey, and at the Max Planck Institute for Complex Systems (Dresden) working with Roderich Moessner. I received my PhD from the University of Cambridge (Trinity College) under the supervision of Nigel Cooper, and did my Bachelors and Masters at Ludwig-Maximilians University in Munich, Germany.
Our group is currently funded by the Air Force Office of Scientific Research (AFOSR) and the National Science Foundation (NSF).
Funding
- AFOSR DEPSCOR Grant (2025–2028) — "Spatio-temporal Control in Long-Range Interacting Quantum Systems." PI: T. Bilitewski (OSU), Co-PI: G. Biedermann (OU). $600,000. Air Force Office of Scientific Research.
- NSF NRT Award (2025–2030) — "Accelerating Transdisciplinary Training of an Oklahoma Workforce for the Artificial Intelligence and Quantum Revolution (ATTAQ)." Co-PI. $3,000,000. National Science Foundation.
Recent News
New Preprints
Late 2025
Three new preprints from our group and collaborators: 'Observation of phase memory and dynamical phase transitions in spinor gases' (arXiv:2511.03720), 'Lattice-enabled detection of spin-dependent three-body interactions' (arXiv:2510.01158), and 'Polarization-dependent chiral transport and chiral solitons in spin Kitaev models' (arXiv:2508.17084).
Arman Duha Thesis Defense
November 2025
Congratulations to Arman on successfully defending his thesis on 'NON-EQUILIBRIUM ENTANGLEMENT DYNAMICS AND TRANSPORT IN ENGINEERED QUANTUM SYSTEMS'.
PRL Publication
October 2025
Our work on 'Nonequilibrium Critical Scaling of a Squeezing Phase Transition' was published in Physical Review Letters.
$600k AFOSR Grant
October 2025
Awarded $600k AFOSR Grant on 'Spatio-temporal Control in long-range interacting Quantum Systems'.
$3M NSF NRT Grant
August 2025
Awarded $3M NSF NRT Grant 'Accelerating Transdisciplinary Training of an Oklahoma Workforce for the Artificial Intelligence and Quantum Revolution '.
PRL Publication
April 2025
Our work on 'Quantum Many-Body Scars' in Spinor BECs in collaboration with the group of Dr Yingmei Liu was published in Physical Review Letters.
Research Highlights

Squeezing Phase Transitions
PRL
Squeezing Phase Transitions and Entanglement Generation

Quantum Many-Body Scars
PRL
Ergodicity Breaking and Quantum Many-Body Scars


Hydrodynamics in Spin Systems
PRB
Anomalous Hydrodynamics, KPZ Scaling and Solitons in the classical Heisenberg Chain

Pauli Blocking and Cooperative Effects
PRL
Pauli blocking and cooperative effects in 2D Fermi gases

Dipolar Molecules and Squeezing
PRL
Metrology and squeezing in two-dimensional dipolar molecular Fermi gases

SU(N) Fermi Gases
Nature Physics
Understanding the thermodynamics of a SU(N) Fermi Gas

Chaos across Phase Transitions
PRB
Chaos, the butterfly effect and quasi-particles across thermal phase transitions

Chaos and Butterfly effect
PRL
Chaos and the butterfly effect in a classical many-body spin system

Spin Liquids and Disorder
PRL
New type of spin liquid in the bond-disordered Kagome-Antiferromagnet arrising from the interplay of disorder and geometric frustration

Flat Bands and Disorder
Editors' suggestion
Exactly degenerate Flat Bands in presence of disorder on the Kagome lattice

Floquet Engineering and Heating
PRA
Heating in interacting Floquet-engineered quantum systems

Synthetic Dimensions
PRA
Interactions and pair-superfluidity in synthetic dimensions


