I. Cirac - Quantum simulations : from condensed matter to high energy models

Ignacio Cirac (Max-Planck-Institut für Quantenoptik, Munich)

Many-body quantum systems are very hard to describe and simulate in general, since the dimension of the state space grows exponentially with the number of particles, volume, etc. Cold atoms in optical lattices as well as trapped ions may help us in that task, as one can engineer the interactions among the atoms in order to emulate many-body quantum problems. In this talk I will briefly summarize proposals to simulate condensed matter as well as high energy physics models with those systems. I will also show how photonic crystal structures can be used to design subwavelength optical lattices in two dimensions for ultracold atoms, potentially achieving a better performance than current experimental set-ups.

Ignacio Cirac graduated from the Complutense University of Madrid in 1988 and moved to Boulder, Colorado, to work with Peter Zoller. In 1996, he became the Director of the Theoretical Division of the Max Planck Institute of Quantum Optics in Garching in 2001.

Ignacio is one of the pioneers of the field of quantum computing and quantum information theory. His early works on ion trap quantum computation opened up the possibility of experimental quantum computation, and his works on optical lattices contributed to jumpstart the field of quantum simulation. He has also made seminal contributions in the field of degenerated quantum gases, quantum optics and renormalization group methods.