Thursday seminar

[Cond.Matt. & Stat.Mech.Section]

Seminar on   Disorder and strong electron correlations

  

Thursday, 24 March -  11:30 a.m.

 

Luigi Stasi Seminar Room,  Leonardo Building - first floor

 

Ettore VICARI      ( Universita' degli Studi di Pisa )



"Classical and quantum critical behaviors in   confined particle systems"



Abstract

Physical systems are generally inhomogeneneous, while homogeneous systems are often an ideal limit of experimental conditions.  An important issue of the theory of critical phenomena is how critical behaviors develop in inhomogenous systems.  Physically interesting systems are interacting particles confined within a limited region of space by an external potential.

Recent experiments of Bose-Einstein condensation in diluted atomic vapors and of cold atoms in optical lattices are set up with a harmonic trap.  They provide great opportunities to investigate the interplay between quantum and statistical behaviors in particle systems, and, in particular, at the transitions between their thermodynamic and/or quantum phases.  Therefore, a theoretical description of how criticality develops in the presence of the confining enternal field is of great importance for these experiments.

I present a trap-size scaling theory for confined particle systems at thermal and quantum transitions, providing a framework to describe the critical behaviors of confined particle systems.  Some applications to physically interesting models are discussed.