CAREER: Quantum Phases and Non-Equilibrium Dynamics of Strongly Correlated Photons

该职业奖支持的项目旨在描述、模拟和预测光相互作用粒子物理系统中的新特性和新现象。这些被称为光子的粒子非常丰富：可见光、无线电波和x射线都由光子组成。在自由空间中，单个光子基本上不受附加光子存在的影响。由于缺乏相互作用，光子可能是目前已知的最简单的基本粒子。然而，在人工系统中，光子之间的强相互作用可以被诱导，这些系统将光子限制在谐振腔中，并迫使它们与额外的组件（例如，原子或超导材料制成的电路）相互作用。光子之间诱导相互作用的结果令人惊讶：光可以表现出通常与大质量粒子相关的行为。通过这个奖项，描述这种新型量子行为的理论模型将在即将到来的实验数据的背景下得到发展和分析。该奖项资助的研究的主要目标是解决开发所需工具的挑战，以定量理解和预测强相互作用光子态及其性质。该研究项目将被纳入一项教育计划，该计划将当前的研究、凝聚态理论专题的专业知识和现代教学方法整合到课程中，并鼓励本科生和研究生参与研究和推广活动。外展工作将积极促进西北大学科学外展和公众参与办公室建立的几个项目，旨在促进科学素养，提高公众科学参与度，并打破对科学研究人员的广泛刻板印象。

This CAREER Award supports a project aiming to describe, simulate, and predict new properties and emergent phenomena in physical systems of interacting particles of light. These particles, called photons, are abundant: visible light, radio waves, and x-rays all consist of photons. In free space, an individual photon remains essentially unaffected by the presence of additional photons. This lack of interaction renders photons the perhaps simplest fundamental particles known today. Strong interactions between photons can, however, be induced in artificial systems which confine photons to resonators and force them to interact with an additional component (e.g., an atom or a circuit made of superconducting material). The consequences of the induced interaction between photons are surprising: light can exhibit behavior usually associated with massive particles. Through this award, theoretical models for describing this new type of quantum behavior will be developed and analyzed in the context of upcoming experimental data. The primary goal of research funded by the award is to address the challenge of developing needed tools for the quantitative understanding and prediction of strongly interacting photon states and their properties.The research program will be embedded in an education plan that integrates current research, expertise in special topics of condensed matter theory, and modern teaching methods into the curriculum, and encourages undergraduate and graduate students to engage in research and outreach activities. Outreach efforts will actively contribute to several programs established in Northwestern's Office for Science Outreach and Public Engagement, and are designed to promote science literacy, raise public science engagement, and break down widely held stereotypes of science researchers.