IQUIST Seminar: "Hidden time-reversal symmetry in dissipative quantum systems: from exact solutions to engineering many-body entanglement," Aashish Clerk, Professor of Molecular Engineering, University of Chicago
- Event Type
- Seminar/Symposium
- Sponsor
- IQUIST
- Location
- 190 Engineering Sciences Building, 1101 W Springfield Ave, Urbana, IL 61801
- Date
- Nov 11, 2025 11:00 - 11:50 am
- Speaker
- Speaker: Aashish Clerk, Professor of Molecular Engineering, University of Chicago
- Contact
- Stephanie Gilmore
- stephg1@illinois.edu
- Phone
- 217-244-9570
- Views
- 139
- Originating Calendar
- IQUIST Seminar Series
Abstract: Many-body quantum systems subject to both driving and dissipation are ubiquitous, and often possess complex steady states that do not have a simple thermal-equilibrium form. I’ll discuss how a subtle kind of quantum detailed balance (what we call “hidden time-reversal symmetry” (hTRS)) can yield exact insights into a range of different driven-dissipative quantum systems, including many-body systems relevant to a variety of experimental platforms. The symmetry can also provide a powerful starting point for engineering dissipative dynamics that stabilizes non-trivial states. I’ll discuss how hTRS lets us exactly describe a surprising non-equilibrium phase transition in a driven XXZ spin chain, and how it lets us design a cavity-QED compatible dynamics that can stabilize a host of non-trivial entangled states (including states that enable noise-robust quantum metrology, and states with SPT order).
Bio: Aashish Clerk’s research focuses on understanding complex phenomena in quantum systems that are both strongly driven and subject to dissipation. Such effects are not only interesting from a fundamental perspective, but can also enable quantum technologies to transcend the limitations of purely classical systems. His group’s work intersects the fields of condensed matter physics, quantum optics, and quantum information.
Prof. Clerk received his B.Sc. in 1996 from the University of Toronto and a PhD in Physics from Cornell University in 2001. He worked as a postdoctoral fellow at Yale University until 2004 when he joined the faculty at McGill University and concurrently served as a Canada Research Chair. Clerk joined the University of Chicago as a faculty member in 2017.
Clerk’s honors include being appointed a Simons Investigator in Theoretical Physics in 2020, as well as receiving a Sloan Research Fellowship, an E.W.R. Steacie Memorial Fellowship from Canada’s National Science and Engineering Research Council, the Rutherford Memorial Medal in Physics from the Royal Society of Canada, and a Simons Foundation Fellowship in Theoretical Physics.
To watch online, go to the IQUIST YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCCzAySwQXF8J4kRolUzg2ww