Quantum many-body physics with atoms and photons
Tightly packed ordered arrays of atoms exhibit remarkable collective optical properties, as dissipation in the form of photon emission is correlated. In this talk, I will discuss the many-body out-of-equilibrium physics of atomic arrays, and how coherence emerges from dissipation. I will focus on the problem of Dicke superradiance, where a collection of excited atoms synchronizes as they decay, emitting a short and intense pulse of light. Superradiance remains an open problem in extended systems due to the exponential growth of complexity with atom number. I will show that superradiance is a universal phenomenon in ordered arrays, and generically occurs if the inter-atomic distance is small enough. Our predictions can be tested in state of the art experiments with arrays of neutral atoms, molecules, and solid-state emitters and pave the way towards understanding the role of many-body decay in quantum simulation, metrology, and lasing.
Bio: Ana Asenjo-Garcia joined Columbia as an assistant professor of physics in January 2019. Her research focus is on theoretical quantum optics and its intersection with open quantum systems, many-body physics, and quantum information. She graduated from Universidad Complutense de Madrid in 2014. After a short postdoc at the Institute of Photonic Sciences (ICFO) in Barcelona, she joined Caltech as an IQIM Fellow and, later, as a Marie Curie Fellow. She has recently received the Packard Fellowship and the Sloan Fellowship, as well as the NSF CAREER Award and the AFOSR Young Investigator Prize.
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