Irish Quantum Foundations      30-31 May 2014

Anton Akhmerov Reducing and increasing dimensionality of a topological insulator

Paul Eastham Macroscopic quantum coherence and superfluidity of exciton-polaritons

The possibility of creating Bose-Einstein condensates of quasiparticles in solids was raised more than fifty years ago. While the idea has always attracted theorists, the field has grown rapidly in the last few years, with the experimental realization of several such condensates - in particular of excitons in quantum-Hall bilayers, of exciton-polaritons in semiconductor microcavities, and of magnons in garnet films. These solid-state condensates can be manipulated and probed in ways impossible for conventional condensates, such as Helium-4 or cold atomic gases, and, furthermore, are typically found away from thermodynamic equilibrium. I will give an introduction to some of these condensates and their properties, and address the question of whether Bose-Einstein condensates of polaritons are superfluids. I will outline some of our recent work showing that their non-equilibrium nature destroys superfluidity (and probably quasi-long-range-order), so that their properties are fundamentally different from those known for equilibrium Bose-Einstein condensates.

Sinead Farrington Higgs to fermions at ATLAS

Nicolas Garron Kaon Physics in the standard model and beyond, a lattice QCD approach

David Jennings Entanglement Theory and Thermodynamics

Entanglement is the most non-classical aspect of quantum theory, which in recent times has come to prominence in a range of research areas - from black hole physics and the AdS/CFT correspondence, to many-body physics and complexity theory. Here I will report on recent results coming from quantum information theory that reveal striking connections between the theory of entanglement and quantum thermodynamics. I will argue that these results suggest a more unified framework for the two theories, provide insight into the structure of quantum theory and indicate that more generalized thermodynamic laws are required in extreme quantum regimes.

Graham Kells Topological blocking in quantum quench dynamics

Kyriakos Papadodimas The black hole interior in AdS/CFT and the information paradox

Michael Tuite On Exceptional Vertex Operator (Super) Algebras

Erik Verlinde String Theory and the Entropic Origin of Dark Energy and Dark Matter