SP Seminar 04.10 at SISSA Via Bonomea: E Rico-Ortega

[Condensed Matter Section]

PLEASE NOTE CHANGE OF DAY - WEDNESDAY 4 OCTOBER.

Condensed Matter & Statistical Physics Section
http:://www.ictp.it/research/cmsp.aspx

JOINT ICTP/SISSA STATISTICAL PHYSICS SEMINAR

Wednesday, 4 October - 11:00 am

SISSA, Via Bonomea, room 128, 1st floor


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Speaker: E Rico-Ortega (UPV)

Title: Exploring SO(3) "Nuclear Physics" with Ultra-cold Gases

Abstract: An ab initio calculation of nuclear physics from Quantum
Chromo-dynamics (QCD), the fundamental SU(3) gauge theory of the
strong interaction, remains an outstanding challenge. We will discuss
the emergence of key elements of nuclear physics using an SO(3)
lattice gauge theory as a toy model for QCD. We will show that this
model is accessible to state-of-the-art quantum simulation experiments
with ultra-cold atoms in an optical lattice. First, we will
demonstrate that our model shares characteristic many-body features
with QCD, such as the spontaneous breakdown of chiral symmetry, its
restoration at finite baryon density, as well as the existence of
few-body bound states. Then, we will show that, in the one-dimensional
case, the dynamics in the gauge-invariant sector can be encoded as a
spin-3/2 Heisenberg model, i.e., as quantum magnetism, which has a
natural realization with bosonic mixtures in optical lattices, and
thus sheds light on the connection between non-Abelian gauge theories
and quantum magnetism.

with: M. Dalmonte, P. Zoller, D. Banerjee, M. Boeˆgli, P. Stebler, U.-J. 
Wiese