Many-body Quantum Systems out of Equilibrium

在过去的60年里，许多从根本上重塑了社会几乎每一个方面的技术进步都植根于凝聚态物理知识的快速发展。20世纪四五十年代，贝尔实验室凝聚态物理学家的工作为现代计算机和现代通信技术的发展奠定了基础，对我们的日常生活影响最大的可能就是这些工作了。肖克利、巴丁和布拉顿因“对半导体的研究和晶体管效应的发现”而获得1956年诺贝尔物理学奖。他们被视为“硅谷”的创始人。如果没有这些凝聚态科学家进行的基础研究，互联网和微软、苹果、b谷歌、Facebook和亚马逊等公司就不会存在。作为一名理论凝聚态物理学家，我的主要兴趣是在推进我们对量子多体系统的知识的前沿工作，为未来的量子技术革命奠定基础。相关量子多体系统可以表现出在少体系统中不存在的集体行为和物质的新相。例如，粒子之间的相互作用可以将二维陶瓷转化为高温超导体，或者在一维无序量子链中产生新的多体局域相，可以作为量子信息的存储器。我的长期愿景是发展分析和数值技术，以推进我们对量子多体系统中集体行为的认识，从而为开发下一代量子技术奠定基础。对量子系统的任何操作，例如，应用于量子计算机的逻辑门或应用于量子线的电流，都会使系统失去平衡。因此，我研究的一个特别重点是开发有效的分析和数值工具来描述多体系统中的非平衡动力学。在我的研究中，一个重要的角色是特殊的，所谓的可积量子模型。对于这些系统，许多性质可以解析计算，为我的研究小组开发的其他近似解析和数值方法提供了重要的基准。为了研究可积模型，我与伍珀塔尔大学和汉诺威大学的主要研究人员一起，建立了一个由德国研究基金会支持的国际研究单位（For 2316）。我的几个博士生正在德国度过他们的一部分时间，作为曼尼托巴大学和伍珀塔尔大学之间的一个Cotutelle项目的一部分。通过充分参与国际研究工作，他们将融入一个独特的培训环境——包括定期会议、软技能培训和暑期学校——这将使我目前正在培训的五名博士生走上成为凝聚态研究未来领导者的道路。

Many of the technological advances which have fundamentally reshaped almost every aspect of society in the last 60 years are rooted in a rapid advancement of knowledge in condensed matter physics. Nothing had possibly a larger impact on our daily lives than the work of condensed matter physicists at Bell Labs in the 1940's and 1950's which set the stage for the development of modern computers and modern communication technologies. Shockley, Bardeen, and Brattain were awarded the 1956 Nobel prize in physics for ``their researches on semiconductors and their discovery of the transistor effect''. They are seen as the founding fathers of the 'silicon valley'. Without the fundamental research performed by these condensed matter scientists, the internet and companies such as Microsoft, Apple, Google, Facebook, and Amazon would not exist. As a theoretical condensed matter physicist, my main interests are in working at the cutting edge of advancing our knowledge of quantum many-body systems, laying the foundations for future quantum technology revolutions. Correlated quantum many-body systems can show collective behaviour and novel phases of matter which do not exist in a few-body system. Interactions between particles can, for example, turn a two-dimensional ceramic into a high-temperature superconductor, or create a novel many-body localized phase in one-dimensional disordered quantum chains which can act as a memory for quantum information. My long-term vision is to develop the analytical and numerical techniques to advance our knowledge of collective behaviour in quantum many-body systems, thus setting the stage to develop future-generations quantum technologies. Any operation on a quantum system, e.g. a logical gate applied to a quantum computer or a current applied to a quantum wire, drives the system out of equilibrium. A particular focus of my research is therefore the development of efficient analytical and numerical tools to describe the non-equilibrium dynamics in many-body systems. An important role in my efforts play special, so-called integrable quantum models. For these systems many properties can be calculated analytically providing important benchmarks for other approximate analytical and numerical methods developed by my research group. For the research on integrable models I have, together with leading researchers from Wuppertal and Hannover universities, established an international Research Unit (FOR 2316) which is supported by the German Research Foundation. Several of my PhD students are spending part of their time in Germany as part of a Cotutelle program between the University of Manitoba and Wuppertal University. By fully participating in international research efforts, they will be embedded into a unique training environment - including regular conferences, soft skill trainings, and summer schools - which puts the five PhD students I am currently training on a path to become future leaders in condensed matter research.