Faculty of Science, Technology and Medicine
Faculty of Law, Economics and Finance
Faculty of Humanities, Education and Social Sciences
Interdisciplinary Centre for Security, Reliability and Trust
Luxembourg Centre for Systems Biomedicine
Luxembourg Centre for Contemporary and Digital History
Luxembourg Centre for European Law
Luxembourg Centre for Socio-Environmental Systems
Active quantum flocks
Abstract:
Flocks of animals represent a fascinating archetype of collective behavior in the macroscopic classical world, where the constituents, such as birds, concertedly perform motions and actions as if being one single entity. Here, we address the outstanding question of whether flocks can also form in the microscopic world at the quantum level. For that purpose, we introduce the concept of active quantum matter by formulating a class of models of active quantum particles on a one-dimensional lattice. We provide both analytical and large-scale numerical evidence that these systems can give rise to quantum flocks. A key finding is that these flocks, unlike classical ones, exhibit distinct quantum properties by developing strong quantum coherence over long distances. We propose that quantum flocks could be experimentally observed in Rydberg atom arrays. Our work paves the way towards realizing the intriguing collective behaviors of biological active particles in quantum matter systems. We expect that this opens up a path towards a yet totally unexplored class of nonequilibrium quantum many-body systems with unique properties.
About the speaker:
Since 2022: Professor at the Universität Augsburg: Chair for Theoretical Physics III
2016-2022: Leibniz Group Leader at the Max-Planck Institute for the Physics of Complex Systems, Dresden.
2015-2016: Leopoldina Returning Fellowship at the Technical University of Munich with Prof. Wilhelm Zwerger.
2013-2015: Leopoldina PostDoc Fellowship at the Institute for Quantum Optics and Quantum Information (IQOQI) with Prof. Peter Zoller, Innsbruck.
2013: PostDoc at the Institute for Quantum Optics and Quantum Information (IQOQI) with Prof. Peter Zoller, Innsbruck.
2012 – 2013: PostDoc at the Dresden University of Technology with Prof. Matthias Vojta.
2012: PhD in theoretical physics at Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität Munich.
The colloquium will take place on Monday, November 17th, at 2:00 PM in room BSC 003 at the Bâtiment des Sciences, Limpertsberg campus.
Prior to the colloquium, we warmly invite you to a coffee break at 1:30 PM in the entrance hall of the Bâtiment des Sciences. This is a fantastic opportunity to engage with Prof. Heyl and connect with fellow attendees over a cup of coffee. For logistics purposes, please register for the coffee break by November 12th using the following button.
If you are unable to join us in person, you can still participate in the event remotely through the Webex link below.