Physics & Astronomy Colloquium — Dr. Qingze Guan
About the event
The Department of Physics and Astronomy invites all to a colloquium featuring Dr. Qingze Guan, candidate for a faculty position. Dr. Guan will present his talk, “Harnessing Dynamical Phase Transitions in Atomic Systems”.
Abstract: Nonequilibrium processes are an ubiquitous feature of natural and artificial systems, ranging from weather to the stock market. Breakthroughs in experimental control of quantum systems mean that nonequilibrium phenomena are now also being harnessed in many aspects of quantum information science and next-generation quantum technologies. In this context, I will discuss recent attempts to develop a fundamental framework to understand and classify nonequilibrium phases of quantum matter via dynamical phase transitions. In particular, I will discuss how they arise in a range of disparate AMO models, such as the Lipkin-Meshkov-Glick spin model, spinor Bose-Einstein condensates, and scalar condensates in moving optical lattices. I will discuss how dynamical phase transitions in these systems can be related to and shed light on a variety of important topics in modern quantum science, including quantum metrology, excited-state quantum phase transitions, and tunneling physics.