Science at Theatre: Understanding Quantum Computing Through Acrobatics
The lights go out at the Bonn theatre, and silence falls over the sold-out auditorium. Four artists, each representing a computer bit, count down in binary code, turning toward the audience and back again: they display the states 0 or 1. But what about the “in-between”? Quantum bits (qubits) follow different laws: They can exist in both states simultaneously. Physicists from the “Color meets Flavor” Cluster of Excellence demonstrated how this works on October 31st during a very special theater show. All eyes on qubits!
Bringing Research to the Public
The show marks the kickoff of the new series“Science in the Theater,” in which the University of Bonn will present its Clusters of Excellence one by one. Organizer Prof. Dr. Matthias Schott sees this as an opportunity to bring research more into the center of society: “Our event series ‘Science at Theatre’ offers a great setting to make the science of our Clusters of Excellence accessible to the general public, to engage with people outside the university, and to get them excited about our topics.”
As the series kicked off, “Color meets Flavor” explored the topic of quantum computing—a technology of the future that many people are already familiar with, but only a few truly understand. In a captivating way, the physicists took the audience on a journey into the world of quantum physics, bringing it to life through acrobatics, musical performances, and technical expertise.
Rethinking Science Communication
The idea of combining theoretical physics with the performing arts dates back to the “Physik im Apollo” series, which launched in 2023 at the Apollo Theater in Siegen and has since featured five sold-out shows.
The combination of entertainment and scientific content aims to create an accessible gateway to cutting-edge research and to bring research and society closer together.
Prof. Dr. Alexander Lenz, cluster co-spokesperson and professor of theoretical elementary particle physics at the University of Siegen, has combined his passion for physics and acrobatics to achieve this. Together with his wife Marion and his sons Kilian and Leon, he embodied four qubits in the quantum computing show, depicting their complex interactions through acrobatic moves: “We represented the change of the states of individual qubits through forward rolls, handstands, and somersaults—the entanglement of multiple qubits was particularly exciting, which we performed through spectacular lifts involving four acrobats. This helps the audience better visualize the process at the atomic particle level,” explains Lenz. This took the team half a year of training four times per week.
Between Basic Research and Future Potential
In the second part of the presentation, Prof. Dr. Lena Funcke continued the program with her lecture on the human understanding of matter and quantum mechanics.
She completed her doctorate at the age of 23 and now holds the Clausius Chair in Computer-Aided Quantum Field Theory at the University of Bonn. She is also involved in two Clusters of Excellence in physics and was awarded the prestigious Heinz Maier-Leibnitz Prize in 2025. With great enthusiasm, she explained the fundamentals, current challenges, and future potential and limitations of quantum computing. Following the lecture, Prof. Funcke took questions from the interested audience.
Members of the University of Siegen also took center stage musically:
psychology student Annelie Fleck (vocals) and Dr. Martin Lang (piano) performed Adele’s “Set Fire to the Rain.” The finale was Metallica’s “Nothing Else Matters,” featuring Dr. Lang on piano, Prof. Dr. Christof Wunderlich (Chair of Quantum Optics) on guitar, and Prof. Dr. Holger Schönherr (Dean of the School of Science and Technology at the University of Siegen) on electric guitar. Prof. Alexander and Dr. Marion Lenz once again demonstrated their acrobatic skills. In the foyer, an exhibition booth provided information on the university’s research priorities—complete with a “Quarks Candy Bar.”
Upcoming Dates for “Science in the Theater”
Four more shows in the “Science in the Theater” series will take place at the Schauspielhaus Bad Godesberg through May 11, 2027. Here is an overview of the dates.
Background: “Color meets Flavor” Cluster of Excellence
Some of the most fascinating measurements in recent years have focused on the interplay between the strong (“color”) and weak (“flavor”) interactions. The goal of “Color Meets Flavor”—a new Cluster of Excellence initiative by the University of Bonn, TU Dortmund, the University of Siegen, and Forschungszentrum Jülich—is to conduct a detailed investigation of this interaction through close collaboration between theory and experiment. The focus is on the physics of quarks and the question of how these fundamental building blocks of matter form complex bound states. At the same time, the properties of the Higgs boson will be investigated, and the search for the axion will continue.
Since the masses of the six known quarks span several orders of magnitude, the experimental infrastructure ranges from the low- to medium-energy range at the ELSA particle accelerator in Bonn to ultra-high-energy experiments at CERN’s Large Hadron Collider (LHC) in Geneva.
