About

Jessica Yinka Thomas is an Associate Professor of Practice and the Director of the Business Sustainability Collaborative at the Poole College of Management at North Carolina State University. She has over fifteen years of experience working domestically and internationally in sustainable enterprise, social innovation, and business development. Her professional background includes leadership roles at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill’s Kenan-Flagler Business School, where she was managing director of the Center for Sustainable Enterprise and program director of the Business Accelerator for Sustainable Entrepreneurship. She has also held leadership positions at Duke University’s Competition for Underserved and Resource-poor Economies (CUREs), CFED, an economic development organization in Durham, North Carolina, as well as roles in engineering and new product development in educational toy and communications industries. Her academic focus is on social innovation, sustainable business, and sustainability, with active involvement in initiatives such as the Business Analytics and AI Initiative and the Business Sustainability Collaborative. She holds an MBA from Duke University Fuqua School of Business and a B.S. in Engineering from Stanford University.

Research topics

• Physics
• Computer Science
• Quantum mechanics
• Statistical physics
• Condensed matter physics

Selected publications

• Energy-resolved spin correlation measurements: Decoding transverse spin dynamics in weakly interacting Fermi gases

  Physical review. A/Physical review, A · 2024-04-10 · 4 citations

  articleSenior author

  The authors measure transverse spin correlations in energy space to uncover hidden spin dynamics in a weakly interacting Fermi gas. The correlation functions reveal the microscopic structure of a demagnetizing or magnetizing synthetic spin lattice, which models a collective Heisenberg Hamiltonian, and provide new observables for studies of transitions between dynamical phases.

  PublisherDOI

• Many-body suppression of optically induced inelastic scattering in a weakly interacting Fermi gas near a Fano-Feshbach resonance

  Physical review. A/Physical review, A · 2024-08-20 · 1 citations

  articleSenior author

  We derive a model to explain the observed suppression of optically induced loss in a weakly interacting Fermi gas as the $s$-wave scattering length is increased [C. A. Royse et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. 133, 083404 (2024)]. We incorporate spin-dependent loss into a quasiclassical collective spin vector model to show that loss suppression occurs via a transition to a magnetized dynamical state, where two-body $s$-wave scattering is inhibited via the Pauli principle. By comparing measurements in mixtures and coherently prepared samples, we show that the data are quantitatively explained by the model, which is applicable to the optical control of energy-space lattices for new quantum simulators.

  PublisherDOI

• Collective Dynamical Fermi Suppression of Optically Induced Inelastic Scattering

  Physical Review Letters · 2024-08-20 · 2 citations

  articleSenior author

  We observe strong dynamical suppression of optically induced loss in a weakly interacting Fermi gas as the s-wave scattering length is increased. A single trapped cigar-shaped cloud behaves as a large spin lattice in energy space with a tunable Heisenberg Hamiltonian. The loss suppression occurs as the lattice transitions into a magnetized state, where the fermionic nature of the atoms inhibits interactions. The data are quantitatively explained by incorporating spin-dependent loss into a quasiclassical collective spin vector model, the success of which enables the application of optical control of effective long-range interactions to this system.

  PublisherDOI

• Universal density shift coefficients for the thermal conductivity and shear viscosity of a unitary Fermi gas

  Physical Review Research · 2024-10-23 · 6 citations

  articleOpen accessSenior author

  We measure universal temperature-independent density shifts for the thermal conductivity <a:math xmlns:a="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML"><a:msub><a:mi>κ</a:mi><a:mi>T</a:mi></a:msub></a:math> and shear viscosity <b:math xmlns:b="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML"><b:mi>η</b:mi></b:math>, relative to the high temperature limits, for a normal phase unitary Fermi gas confined in a box potential. We show that a time-dependent kinetic theory model enables extraction of the hydrodynamic transport times <c:math xmlns:c="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML"><c:msub><c:mi>τ</c:mi><c:mi>η</c:mi></c:msub></c:math> and <d:math xmlns:d="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML"><d:msub><d:mi>τ</d:mi><d:mi>κ</d:mi></d:msub></d:math> from the time-dependent free decay of a spatially periodic density perturbation, yielding the static transport properties and density shifts, corrected for finite relaxation times. Published by the American Physical Society 2024

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Universal Density Shift Coefficients for the Thermal Conductivity and Shear Viscosity of a Unitary Fermi Gas

  arXiv (Cornell University) · 2024-02-21

  preprintOpen accessSenior author

  We measure universal temperature-independent density shifts for the thermal conductivity $κ_T$ and shear viscosity $η$, relative to the high temperature limits, for a normal phase unitary Fermi gas confined in a box potential. We show that a time-dependent kinetic theory model enables extraction of the hydrodynamic transport times $τ_η$ and $τ_κ$ from the time-dependent free-decay of a spatially periodic density perturbation, yielding the static transport properties and density shifts, corrected for finite relaxation times.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Collective dynamical Fermi suppression of optically-induced inelastic scattering

  arXiv (Cornell University) · 2024-01-26

  preprintOpen accessSenior author

  We observe strong dynamical suppression of optically induced loss in a weakly interacting Fermi gas as the $s$-wave scattering length is increased. The single, cigar-shaped cloud behaves as a large spin lattice in energy space with a tunable Heisenberg Hamiltonian. The loss suppression occurs as the lattice transitions into a magnetized state, where the fermionic nature of the atoms inhibits interactions. The data are quantitatively explained by incorporating spin-dependent loss into a quasi-classical collective spin vector model, the success of which enables the application of optical control of effective long-range interactions to this system.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Energy-resolved spin correlation measurements: Decoding transverse spin dynamics in weakly interacting Fermi gases

  arXiv (Cornell University) · 2023-09-13

  preprintOpen accessSenior author

  We study transverse spin dynamics on a microscopic level by measuring energy-resolved spin correlations in weakly interacting Fermi gases (WIFGs). The trapped cloud behaves as a many-body spin-lattice in energy space with effective long-range interactions, simulating a collective Heisenberg model. We observe the flow of correlations in energy space in this quasi-continuous system, revealing the connection between the evolution of the magnetization and the localization or spread of correlations. This work highlights energy-space correlation as a new observable in quantum phase transition studies of WIFGs, decoding system features that are hidden in macroscopic measurements.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Verifying a quasiclassical spin model of perturbed quantum rewinding in a Fermi gas

  Physical review. A/Physical review, A · 2023 · 4 citations

  Senior authorCorresponding
  • Physics
  • Quantum mechanics
  • Condensed matter physics

  By implementing perturbed quantum rewinding experiments in a weakly interacting Fermi gas, the authors illustrate the validity of a quasiclassical model of a large synthetic spin lattice with a collective Heisenberg Hamiltonian.

  PublisherDOI

• Verifying a quasi-classical spin model of perturbed quantum rewinding in a Fermi gas

  arXiv (Cornell University) · 2023-07-10

  preprintOpen accessSenior author

  We systematically test a quasi-classical spin model of a large spin-lattice in energy space, with a tunable, reversible Hamiltonian and effective long-range interactions. The system is simulated by a weakly interacting Fermi gas undergoing perturbed quantum rewinding using radio-frequency(RF) pulses. The model reported here is found to be in a quantitative agreement with measurements of the ensemble-averaged energy-resolved spin density. This work elucidates the effects of RF detunings on the system and measurements, pointing the way to new correlation measurement methods.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Hydrodynamic Relaxation in a Strongly Interacting Fermi Gas

  2022-05-25

  articleOpen accessSenior author

  We measure the free decay of a spatially periodic density profile in a normal fluid strongly interacting Fermi gas, which is confined in a box potential. This spatial profile is initially created in thermal equilibrium by a perturbing potential. After the perturbation is abruptly extinguished, the dominant spatial Fourier component exhibits an exponentially decaying (thermally diffusive) mode and a decaying oscillatory (first sound) mode, enabling independent measurement of the thermal conductivity and the shear viscosity directly from the time-dependent evolution.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

Recent grants

• Quantum Hydrodynamics and Energy Flow in Fermi Gases

  NSF · $570k · 2017–2021

• Quantum Hydrodynamics in Interacting Fermi Gases

  NSF · $538k · 2014–2017

• Time-Dependent Hydrodynamics in Uniform Fermi Gases

  NSF · $563k · 2023–2027

• Quantum Transport in Strongly Interacting Fermi Gases

  NSF · $536k · 2011–2015

• Fluid Dynamics in Uniform Fermi Gases

  NSF · $600k · 2020–2024

Frequent coauthors

• Michael E. Gehm

  34 shared

• K. M. O’Hara

  Pennsylvania State University

  33 shared

• J. Kinast

  23 shared

• Ilya Arakelyan

  North Carolina State University

  20 shared

• S. R. Granade

  20 shared

• James A. Joseph

  VA Pittsburgh Healthcare System

  18 shared

• A. Turlapov

  16 shared

• Samir Bali

  Miami University

  16 shared

Education

• BS, Ph. D., Physics

  Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Awards & honors

• Mark Beasley, Jessica Thomas Recognized for Outstanding Outr…
• BSC Director Jessica Thomas honored for teaching business as…