Dirac Conversation: Subir Sachdev

Dirac Medalist Subir Sachdev, Herchel Smith Professor of Physics at Harvard University, is interviewed by Atish Dabholkar, ICTP Director, and Rosario Fazio, Head of ICTP’s Condensed Matter and Statistical Physics Section.

In this interview, they discuss some of the most interdisciplinary contributions of Subir Sachdev to condensed matter physics, exploring the connections with quantum information, gravity and string theory.

Subir Sachdev was awarded the Dirac medal in 2018 alongside Dam Thanh Son (University of Chicago) and Xiao-Gang Wen (Massachusetts Institute of Technology) “for their independent contributions towards understanding novel phases in strongly interacting many-body systems, introducing original transdisciplinary techniques”.

Since 2024, Sachdev has been the first holder of the Miguel Virasoro Visiting International Chair, hosted in ICTP's Condensed Matter and Statistical Physics section.

The interview was made in June 2022, on the occasion of the joint ICTP-SISSA Colloquium on "Quantum Entanglement at all Distances".



00:00:40:00 Introduction

00:01:16:00 Sachdev-Ye-Kitaev model

00:04:55:11 Condensed matter and quantum information

00:07:52:17 Condensed matter and gravity

00:14:09:22 Condensed matter and string theory

00:18:01:13 Sachdev-Ye-Kitaev model for large N

00:23:43:04 Experiments

00:26:09:23 Diaspora from developing countries and ICTP’s mission

00:29:21:15 Advancing science in developing countries

[shivanshtiwari]

Thank you for such an amazing talk. Loved it 😊