Quantum Matter Out Of Equilibrium: Time Crystals and Beyond

Learn about the fascinating world of non-equilibrium quantum matter — a field at the heart of the ongoing second quantum revolution. Equilibrium statistical mechanics is the foundation of modern physics. It underpins our understanding of everything from our everyday world of solids, liquids, and gases, to more exotic phenomena like superconductors. This is because a “phase of matter” can only emerge from interactions between countless numbers of particles. It is simply impossible to talk about a single particle as a “solid” or “liquid”.

However, it’s equally impossible to track each of the individual particles. Traditionally, physics addressed this problem by assuming a population in equilibrium and analyzing the collective statistical properties of the population. The first quantum revolution, which gave us our modern computer age, was fueled by our understanding of phenomena defined by the collective equilibrium properties of many interacting quantum particles. We are now at the beginning of a second quantum revolution, driven by extraordinary efforts to build quantum devices for the generation and manipulation of quantum entanglement. These devices allow exquisite control over individual quantum entities, giving us controlled access to the non-equilibrium dynamics of quantum systems for the very first time. Indeed the operation of any algorithm run on a quantum computer is inherently a non-equilibrium dynamical process!

In this talk, Khemani discusses recent progress in advancing our understanding of phase structure beyond the equilibrium setting. In particular, quantum matter out-of-equilibrium can allow for novel phenomena that may be forbidden by the usual rules of statistical mechanics. An example is the recent theoretical discovery of time-crystals and its experimental realization on Google’s quantum computer.