Quantum Institute: Visitor Schedule

The Quantum Lunch is regularly held on Thursdays in the Theoretical Division Conference Room, TA-3, Building 123, Room 121.
For more information, contact Diego Dalvit.
To add your name to the Quantum Lunch email list, contact Charlotte Lehman

Thursday, June 3, 2010
12:30 PM - 2:00 PM

Speaker: Duncan O'Dell (McMaster University)

Technical Host: Malcolm Boshier

TOPIC: Quantum Catastrophes

Abstract
Caustics are singularities of the ray theory of light: places where the intensity diverges and the geometric theory fails. A well-known example is the rainbow; another is provided by the bright lines on the bottom of a swimming pool. Caustics are more generally known as “catastrophes” and can occur in quantum mechanics too, typically in semiclassical and mean-field theories. I will present some illustrative examples of catastrophes that have come up in my research in ultra-cold atoms, including atomic diffraction, atomic Josephson junctions and cavity QED. I hope to convince you that catastrophe theory is a useful tool for analyzing quantum systems in certain interesting limits.