Chairs
Professor Lea Santos, Yeshiva University, USA
Professor Lea Santos, Yeshiva University, USA
Lea F. Santos concluded her PhD in theoretical physics in 2000 at the University of Sao Paulo in Brazil. After postdoctoral positions in the United States at Yale University, Michigan State University, and Dartmouth College, she joined Yeshiva University in New York City, where she has been full professor since 2014. Her research focuses on quantum systems of interacting particles with emphasis on the characterization and control of their dynamical properties, the onset of chaos and thermalization, and the metal-insulator transition. She has served in different committees of the American Physical Society, has been awarded grants from the National Science Foundation, including the CAREER award, was a KITP Scholar and is a Cottrell Scholar.
13:30-14:20
Non-equilibrium dynamics of atomic gases in optical cavities
Professor Nigel Cooper, University of Cambridge, UK
Abstract
A novel feature of cold gases is the possibility to couple the motional dynamics of a quantum many body system to (one or more) quantized bosonic modes, describing the light fields in optical cavities. Such matter-light coupled systems show interesting forms of collective dynamics. They are subject to dissipation through fluctuations/damping of the cavity mode. Cooper will present theoretical results that demonstrate examples of these novel collective dynamics, both in uniform and disordered settings, focusing on the question of whether or not the dissipative dynamics drive the system to a unique steady state.
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Professor Nigel Cooper, University of Cambridge, UK
Professor Nigel Cooper, University of Cambridge, UK
Nigel Cooper is a condensed matter theorist, working on many-particle quantum systems. His work spans both the traditional solid-state setting of semiconductor materials and the field of ultra-cold atomic gases. He obtained a PhD from Oxford (1994), and held research positions at Harvard, Institut Laue-Langevin (Grenoble), Cambridge and Birmingham (as Royal Society University Research Fellow). He joined the Cavendish Laboratory in Cambridge in 2000, where he is now Professor of Theoretical Physics. He was awarded the 2007 Maxwell Medal and Prize by the Institute of Physics, a Humboldt Research Award (2013) and an EPSRC Established Career Fellowship (2013).
14:20-15:10
Optically driven strongly correlated quantum systems
Professor Dieter Jaksch, University of Oxford, UK
Abstract
Recent experiments [1,2] indicate that selective optical driving of phonons may generate or enhance ordered phases in strongly correlated quantum materials. In his talk Jaksch will discuss quantum optically inspired models that may help explain and engineer such phenomena. Specifically, Jaksch will consider a driven fermionic Hubbard model in the strongly correlated limit where the onsite interaction dominates over the kinetic energy [3]. The driving is modelled as an alternating periodic modulation of the lattice site energy offsets. He will demonstrate how this modulation suppresses tunnelling and induces exchange interactions. The combination of these effects changes the nature of the system into an attractive Luttinger liquid and leads to enhanced fermion pairing in one spatial dimension. Jaksch will present results at zero and finite temperatures and discuss the prospect of observing driven out-of-equilibrium superconductivity in this model system.
- D. Fausti, R.I. Tobey, N. Dean, S. Kaiser, A. Dienst, M.C. Hoffmann, S. Pyon, T. Takayama, H. Takagi, and A. Cavalleri, Light-Induced Superconductivity in a Stripe-Ordered Cuprate. Science 331, 189 (2011).
- M. Mitrano, A. Cantaluppi, D. Nicoletti, S. Kaiser, A. Perucchi, S. Lupi, P. Di Pietro, D. Pontiroli, M. Ricco, S.R. Clark, D. Jaksch and A. Cavalleri, Possible light-induced superconductivity in K3C60 at high temperature. Nature 530, 461-464 (2016).
- J. Coulthard, S.R. Clark, S. Al-Assam, A. Cavalleri and D. Jaksch, Enhancement of super-exchange pairing in the periodically-driven Hubbard model, arXiv:1608.03964 (2016).
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Professor Dieter Jaksch, University of Oxford, UK
Professor Dieter Jaksch, University of Oxford, UK
Dieter Jaksch is the Head of Atomic and Laser Physics at the University of Oxford. He has worked on strongly correlated quantum systems and their non-equilibrium dynamics since 1998 starting with a proposal for achieving a superfluid to Mott insulator transition in ultracold gases. It was followed by theoretical work that helped laying the foundations of the research field of strongly correlated ensembles of ultracold atoms in optical lattices and realisations of quantum simulators with neutral atoms. His current research interests include developing quantum algorithms for early generation quantum computers, eg, for solving non-linear partial differential equations and optimisation problems, and extending quantum optical techniques towards controlling quantum materials.
15:40-16:30
Signature of non-ergodicity in low-lying excitations of disordered many-particle systems
Professor Richard Berkovits, Bar-Ilan University, Israel
Abstract
The statistical properties of the entanglement spectrum of a disordered many-particle system are studied, in order to identify the localized to extended transition as function of interaction strength and excitation energy expected from the many-body localization transition. In his talk, Berkovits shows that an indication of such a transition is indeed observed, and some of the features may be interpreted as a signature of non-ergodic behaviour.
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Professor Richard Berkovits, Bar-Ilan University, Israel
Professor Richard Berkovits, Bar-Ilan University, Israel
Richard Berkovits is a Professor of Physics at Bar-Ilan University. His speciality is theoretical condensed matter Physics. Berkovits received his PhD in Physics from Bar-Ilan in 1989. He continued on as a post-doc in UCLA and MIT and then returned to Bar-Ilan in 1992 as a faculty member in the Department of Physics, which he chaired between 2008 and 2012. He spent a sabbatical year in Princeton University and NEC Labs.
16:30-17:05
Engineered dissipation and out-of-equilibrium many-body dynamics with cold atoms
Professor Andrew Daley, University of Strathclyde, UK
Abstract
The time-dependent microscopic control available in experiments with systems of ultracold atoms has opened new opportunities to explore many-body dynamics, addressing fundamental questions both in and out of equilibrium. This control can also be extended beyond the coherent dynamics of the system, as in typical experimental regimes the dominant mechanisms for dissipation can both be described microscopically from first principles, and can be controlled with external fields. Such control originates in the separation of timescales for coupling to a reservoir and for the relaxation of the reservoir, which is typical in quantum optics. This allows us to calculate and explore the effect of dissipation on the many-body dynamics, including on the ergodicity of dynamics after a parameter quench. We can also go further, especially in engineering dissipative processes that will drive the system into specific interacting many-body states. Daley will discuss his group’s recent work in this direction, especially looking at the microscopic description of dissipation for cold atoms in optical lattices in the presence of light scattering or with the addition of a second species that acts as a reservoir, and describe applications towards the generation of strongly correlated many-body states, and the investigation of out-of-equilibrium dynamics (including in systems exhibiting many-body-localisation).
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Professor Andrew Daley, University of Strathclyde, UK
Professor Andrew Daley, University of Strathclyde, UK
Andrew Daley is Professor of Theoretical Quantum Optics in the Department of Physics at the University of Strathclyde in Glasgow, Scotland. Originally from Auckland, New Zealand, he completed his doctoral studies at the University of Innsbruck, Austria, in 2005, and was a senior scientist in Innsbruck and then an Assistant Professor at the University of Pittsburgh before moving to Scotland in 2013. His research centres on the interface between quantum optics and many-body physics, especially exploring new possibilities to study out-of-equilibrium dynamics with strongly interacting quantum gases of atoms and molecules in optical potentials. He is currently PI of an EPSRC Programme Grant on ‘Designing out of equilibrium many-body quantum systems’.