Quantum thermodynamics and quantum simulations

Abstract:

Recent years have witnessed rapid developing progresses of quantum computation. The thermodynamics has got an ideal experimental platform instead of the traditional dirty solid materials. For example, due to the structural diversity, it was extremely difficult to explicitly measure the thermodynamic entropy, but with the coherent optical setup, the Renyi entropy became a real observable. In this context, it is necessary to update the traditional thermodynamic concepts to suit for the new circumstance. In this talk, I shall first review the basic definitions of quantum thermodynamics, especially the temperature, entropy, and free energy. Random matrix theory and eigenstate thermalization hypothesis will be mentioned. Then I will talk about (many-body) localization, toric code and fracton, measurement-induced phase transition, time crystal and quantum scars, and the quantum resource theory. Hopefully this brief introduction can help audiences get new ideas for designing more interesting experiments and models.

Bio:

Dr. Yao obtained his Ph.D. from Fudan University in 2010. After working at Fudan for about 6 years, he joined the Department of Physics at South China University of Technology in 2016 and was soon promoted to a full professor. His major is in condensed matter physics, especially organic electronics. He firstly introduced the time-dependent density matrix renormalization group algorithm to study the ultrafast processes in molecular materials. He and collaborators firstly synthesized the materials of room-temperature ferromagnetic organic aggregate. He has rich experience in quantum dynamics, thermodynamics, quantum information, open systems, and strongly-correlated systems. He has authored more than 60 publications, including Nat. Chem./Commun., Phys. Rev. A/B/E/Appl., and Adv. Mater., in a broad range of topics in organics electronics, spintronics, quantum dynamics methodology, spin-boson theory, superconductivity, ferromagnetism, entanglement, and so on.