Please be aware that the International Institute of Physics, IIP, never contacts the participants to ask for credit card or similar information. Participants are expected to pay for their travel and accommodation by themselves unless they qualify for financial support. If you have any questions, please contact IIP events department at events@iip.ufrn.br
Topological Effects in Ultra-Cold Atoms
Workshop | Mon, Nov 14, 2016 | Fri, Nov 18, 2016
Directors:Ultra-cold atoms have proven to be highly tunable experimental systems, where dimensionality, interactions, lattices, internal degrees of freedom can be changed at the turn of a knob. These systems became an amazing playground for quantum simulations of new and old theoretical ideas in various areas of physics, including condensed matter, high energy, atomic and astrophysics. The ability to adjust parameters of the Hamiltonian describing ultra-cold atoms has allowed for investigations of both quantum-gas and quantum-fluid behavior in regimes that are not accessible to equivalent systems found in other areas of physics. Two examples that are striking involve the creation of optical lattices and the simulation of the Bose-Mott insulator and Bose superfluid by tuning interactions and/or tunneling in ultra-cold bosons, and the tuning of interactions to study the evolution from Bardeen-Cooper-Schrieffer to Bose-Einstein-Condensation superfluidity in ultra-cold fermions.
Furthermore, the tuning of dimensionality has allowed experimentalists to explore dimensional crossovers and the emergence of Berezinski-Kosterlitz-Thouless physics in purely or nearly two-dimensional Bose and Fermi systems, where topological excitations such as vortices and anti-vortices play an important role. In other experiments, non-equilibrium properties of Bosons and Fermions are being explored and have already led to the discovery of turbulent behavior and to the study of non-equilibrium dynamics of these systems and their topological excitations, such as vortices and solitons. Furthermore, ultra-cold atoms with spin (hyperfine) degrees of freedom reveal very rich interplay between short-ranged spin-exchange and long-ranged dipolar interactions leading to creation of topological spin-textures such as skyrmions. More recently, artificial gauge fields were created in the laboratory mimicking both a magnetic field (Abelian case) and spin-orbit coupling (Abelian and nonAbelian cases) for bosonic and fermionic atoms in harmonic traps and optical lattices.
The engineering of such fields with a high degree of control allows for the study of topological phases of matter, including topological insulators and superfluids, for the emergence of exotic excitations, such as Majorana fermions, and for behaviors similar to quantum hall and fractional quantum hall systems. Furthermore, non-equilibrium properties of topological excitations or topological phases can be well studied in cold atoms, because the dynamics is very slow, allowing for real time imaging. Therefore, the time is ripe to have an international meeting that focuses on new research frontiers covering topological aspects of the physics of cold atoms, as much of the activity in this field supplements studies of topological effects in standard condensed matter systems, where the degree of control of tunable properties is much more limited.
Registration fee:
Students = R$400,00
Professionals = R$700,00
Registration fee: All the participants are expected to pay the registration fee. Members of the local community (institutions in Natal) are considered as free listeners and are exempt from paying the fee.
Early registration deadline: September 15, 2016
*Registration fee is accepted in cash only.
** Information about lodging will be posted soon.
For more information, please contact our events department at: events@iip.ufrn.br
