"Many-body physics with ultracold gases of atoms and molecules," Waseem Bakr, Princeton University

Many-body physics with ultracold gases of atoms and molecules
Abstract: Understanding emergent behaviors in strongly interacting quantum systems is a frontier area of condensed matter physics. However, simulations of quantum many-body systems on classical computers are not scalable beyond a few dozen particles. This motivates the development of quantum simulators, highly controllable analog quantum computers specifically designed to study certain types of problems in condensed matter physics. I will present an overview of quantum simulation with ultracold gases of atoms and molecules, discussing examples relevant for understanding phenomena that occur in real materials, and others that explore completely novel regimes inaccessible in the solid-state. In particular, I will focus on advances enabled by the introduction of microscopy techniques that probe ultracold gases at the single-particle level and reveal the rich quantum correlations present in these systems.
Bio: Prof. Waseem Bakr obtained his PhD from Harvard University in 2011, where he developed the technique of quantum gas microscopy in the group of Prof. Markus Greiner. After a brief post-doctoral stint in the group of Prof. Martin Zwierlein at MIT, Waseem moved to Princeton in 2013, where he is currently a Professor of Physics at Princeton University. He leads an experimental group that focuses on quantum simulations of condensed matter systems using various quantum platforms, including ultracold atoms, molecules and Rydberg atoms.