Invitation to ICTP Colloquium by Prof. J. Dalibard, "Topology in atomic Flatland", on Wednesday 5 September at 16.30 hrs in Budinich Lecture hall.

[ICTP Director]

Dear All,

ICTP is pleased to announce the forthcoming ICTP Colloquium on "Topology 
in atomic Flatland", by Professor Prof. J. Dalibard. The talk will take 
place on *Wednesday 5 September 2018 at 16:30 hrs*, in the Budinich 
Lecture Hall, Leonardo Building, ICTP.

Prof. J. Dalibard heads an experimental research group at CNRS-ENS and 
Collège de France, Paris. Pioneering recent achievements include the 
first observation of a Kosterlitz-Thouless transition in 2D Bose gases 
and studies of vortex dynamics in rotating condensates. Early in his 
career, J. Dalibard was responsible for key theoretical ideas in laser 
cooling and trapping, including polarization gradient cooling and the 
Magneto-optical Trap (MOT), and thus provides in his present work the 
link between theoretical and experimental quantum optics. He has also 
pioneered theoretical methods to solve the dynamics of open quantum 
systems utilizing quantum trajectories. Among his honors we can find the 
Pascal Medal of the European Academy of Science (2009), the Max Born 
Medal of the American Optical Society (2012), the Davisson–Germer Prize 
of the American Physical Society (2012), the Senior BEC award (2017), 
and his fellowships in the European Academy of Science, the Optical 
Society of America and the American Philosophical Society.

Abstract: The physics of many-body systems strongly depends on their 
dimensionality. For example, in a two-dimensional world, most standard 
phase transitions towards an ordered state of matter would not occur, 
because of the increased role of fluctuations. However non-conventional 
"topological" transitions can still take place, as understood initially 
by Kosterlitz and Thouless. During the last decade, a novel environment 
has been developed for the study of low-dimensional physics. It consists 
of cold atomic gases confined in tailor-made light traps, forming thus a 
thin layer of material particles. In this talk, Prof. Dalibard will 
present some key aspects of these quantum 2D gases, such as their 
transition to a superfluid state and their (approximate) scale 
invariance. He will also discuss out-of-equilibrium features, like the 
nucleation of random currents when merging independent samples.

http://indico.ictp.it/event/8489/

The Colloquium will be livestreamed at ictp.it/livestream

Light refreshments will be served after the talk.

You are all very warmly invited to attend.

Office of the Director, ICTP