Quantum time-crystals
Friday 11 June 2021, 3:00pm to 4:00pm
Venue
Online event via MS TeamsOpen to
Postgraduates, Staff, UndergraduatesRegistration
Registration not required - just turn upEvent Details
Physics Colloquium
Abstract:
Landau's idea of classifying phases of matter in terms of symmetry breaking is a cornerstone of modern physics. Can time-translation invariance be spontaneously broken? The possible existence of time-crystals was first addressed by Wilczek for quantum many-body systems launching an intense activity both theoretically and experimentally. Despite their conceptual simplicity and apparent similarity to ordinary crystals, they were experimentally observed only two years ago, eighty years after the Landau theory of symmetry breaking.
I will review the field focusing in particular on the so called Floquet time-crystals arising in many-body systems that are periodically driven. I will also address prospects to observe continuous time-crystals and their relation to quantum synchronisation.
Speaker
Rosario Fazio (International Centre for Theoretical Physics)
ICTP, Trieste, Italy
Contact Details
Name | Alessandro Romito |