Quantum Institute: Visitor Schedule

The Quantum Lunch is regularly held on Thursdays in the Theoretical Division Conference Room, TA-3, Building 123, Room 121.

The organizing committee includes Malcolm Boshier (P-21), Diego Dalvit (T-4), Michael Di Rosa (C-PCS), Sebastian Deffner (T-4 & CNLS), Changhyun Ryu (P-21) , Nikolai Sinitsyn (T-4), Rolando Somma (T-4), Christopher Ticknor (T-1), and Wojciech Zurek (T-4).

For more information, or to nominate a speaker, contact Sebastian Deffner.

To add your name to the Quantum Lunch email list, contact Kacy Hopwood.

Thursday November 12, 2015
12:30 PM - 2:00 PM

Speaker: Matthew Davis(University of Queensland)

Technical Host: Wojciech Zurek

TOPIC: Ebb and flow of superfluids: Bose-Einstein condensates far from equilibrium

Abstract
The methods of thermodynamics and statistical mechanics provide a powerful framework for understanding systems in equilibrium. However, large parts of the natural world exist in states where there is a constant flux of matter and energy. A grand challenge of physics to develop organising principles to better understand and tame nonequilibrium systems. This talk will provide an overview of aspects of the nonequilibrium physics of superfluid Bose-Einstein condensates (BECs). These quantum gases can be exquisitely controlled by physicists in the laboratory, and provide an excellent model system in which to study nonequilbrium quantum phenomena. In particular we will present a recent example where an initially turbulent two-dimensional BEC self-organises into two giant whirlpools. We connect the dynamics to a famous model of two-dimensional point vortices, and explain the phenomenon in terms of the evaporative heating of quantum vortices.