Björn Borgolte

Curriculum Vitae

Education

• since May 2026
  PhD Student at RTG PhInt | FSU Jena
  Working in the group of Prof. Stefnaie Gräfe on understanding molecular-scale structural changes with multiscale multi-layer methods
• October 2022 - April 2025
  M.Sc. in Theoretical Physics | FSU Jena
  Specialization: General Relativity, Quantum Field Theory, Quantum Gravitysis in the group of Prof. Dr. Thesis Project in the group of Dr. Sebastian Steinhaus: Exploring causal structures in 2+1 dimensional lorentzian Regge-calculus | Supervisors. Dr. Seth Asante and Prof. Dr. Martin Ammon
• October 2018 - April 2022
  B.Sc. in Physics | FSU Jena
  Thesis Project: Photon-Axion Amplituden in starken Feldern (Photon-axion amplitudes in strong fields) | Supervisors: Prof Dr. Holger Gies and Dr. Felix Karbstein

Work Experience

• November 2020 - July 2025
  University teaching aide | FSU Jena
  Tasks: Giving tutorials, exercises, and Q&A sessions | Making and grading exercise sheets and exams
• January 2026
  Internship at Brosch Musik GmbG | Arnstadt
  Tasks: Building and repairing musical instruments

Digital Skills

• Python
  Java
  Godot
  Basic Experience with Assembly languages
  Basic Quantum Computing techniques LaTeX

• Languages

  German (native)
  English (C2)
  Italian (A2)

  Other transferable skills

  Proficiency with advanced Quantum theory, Quantum Field theory, advanced differential calculus, linear algebra, group theory and differential geometry

PhD Project

Understanding the behaviour of the multi-scale systems of interest for PhInt is difficult; the active
sections interacting with light and other stimuli within a molecule are often small, while the desired
responses require macroscopic consideration. A photo switch for instance can only consist of a handful
of atoms, whose rearrangement in response to light causes macroscopic rearrangement in an embedding
membrane. This back-reaction then causes the entire membrane to become permeable to certain
gases. The functionality, lifetime and reactivity of photosensitive materials are thus not only given by
microscopic quantum properties, but also classical macroscopic properties.
Simulations of such multi-scale systems play a key part for PhInt. So far, multi-scale schemes
incorporating both quantum simulations at the active centers and classical simulations at different
scales have been implemented numerically to good success, but lack key features. Among them are
excited state problems on the quantum level and dynamical processes. Reactions of these systems to
light necessitate one of the two however: Photo switches with high response time to a photonic pulse
jump into highly excited states and significantly change the system properties. This is the desired
reversible ”flip”. On the other hand, if the response time is too short, the switch will stay in the slowly
and dynamically adapting ground state. Numerical insight into such system responses are therefore
of interest to us. The goal of my project is the incorporation of these behaviours into the existent
multi-scale frameworks. We hope to achieve this by utilizing non-adiabatic quantum mechanics in the
quantum layers of existing multicenter ONIOM models, as well as implementing interaction between
different active centers in the same level of the simulation.