We announce the following talk, to be held on Wed, April 6th at 2.30 PM in Aula Polvani
Steve Campbell – Queen’s University Belfast
Non-equilibrium thermodynamics, equilibration, and thermometry of trapped cold atoms
Trapped ensembles of bosonic atoms represent an ideal candidate to simulate some of the most interesting aspects in the phenomenology of thermalisation and equilibration in quantum systems. In this talk I will focus on two widely applicable settings, namely harmonically trapped bosons and a loaded double well potential, and use the framework of non-equilibrium thermodynamics to the study the role quantum features play in setting the dynamic and static properties of the systems. I will attempt to show some qualitative evidence for the relation between the creation of entanglement and work performed on the system, and the relation to other interesting quantum phenomena such as Anderson’s Orthogonality catastrophe. Meanwhile, a quantum system’s ability to equilibrate and the role (or seeming lack there of) that genuinely quantum features play will also be presented. Finally, some recent progress in thermometry schemes for the double-well will be discussed.