This award supports theoretical research focused on understanding fundamental aspects of quantum many-particle dynamics and the experimental consequences. The main objective of this proposal is to find universal non-equilibrium phenomena of interacting systems, that is phenomena, which are insensitive to microscopic details. It has been shown that universality emerges in very different aspects of dynamics ranging from universal deviations from the adiabatic limit near quantum critical points, to non-equilibrium phase transitions and universal work fluctuations in driven systems. The PI will develop concepts, utilize theoretical tools from various areas of physics, including condensed matter, atomic, and statistical physics, and develop new theoretical methods. The goals of the research include: understanding the role of geometry in quantum dynamics, in particular, the connection of linear response of physical observables to quench velocity; understanding the interplay of adiabatic dynamics and decoherence; developing approaches for finding a universal statistical description of driven thermally isolated systems, developing a renormalization group analysis of relaxational dynamics; extending phase space approaches to quantum dynamics to new applications like quantum tunneling or going beyond mean field approximation. Theoretical findings will be applied to specific experimental tests.
The PI will be engaged in educational activities at the graduate level and higher including course development, contributing to pedagogical review articles, and participating as a lecturer or organizer in international schools aimed at graduate and advanced undergraduate students. The work will also involve training graduate students directly participating in the research.
NON-TECHNICAL SUMMARY
This award supports theoretical research focused on understanding universal or robust aspects of systems composed of many particles that interact with each other and are far from the steady state of equilibrium. For example electrons in materials or atoms cooled to very low temperatures and trapped by light, and driven far from equilibrium by an applied electromagnetic field. It is well known that interacting many particle systems in equilibrium can self organize leading to new types of collective behavior, for example superconductivity, a state of electrons that can carry electric current without dissipation. However, much less is understood about interacting many-particle systems that are driven far from equilibrium, where the standard tools of statistical physics do not apply.
The PI aims to use advanced theoretical methods from across different areas of physics to find new properties of interacting many-particle systems far from equilibrium that are insensitive to specific microscopic features of the system and therefore apply to many systems. These properties are called universal.
The understanding of the dynamics of quantum mechanical many-body systems far from equilibrium has broad consequences and contributes to intellectual foundations that may lead to future technologies.
The PI will be engaged in educational activities at the graduate level and higher including course development, contributing to pedagogical review articles, and participating as a lecturer or organizer in international schools aimed at graduate and advanced undergraduate students. The work will also involve training graduate students directly participating in the research.
