ICFO – INSIGHT SEMINAR: Disorder and interactions in quantum systems

ABSTRACT
As discovered in the seminal paper of P. W. Anderson in 1958 when an equation such as the Schroedinger equation is subjected to a random potential the nature of the solutions changes drastically going from plane waves to localizes states. An important question is what happens to this phenomenon when instead of looking at the properties of one single particle one wants to deal with a large number of interacting quantum particles, as is relevant for several experimental realizations, both in cold atomic gases and in condensed matter.

I will give in this talk an overview of this class of phenomena, with questions ranging from the phases that can be reached in such interacting disordered systems to the consequences for the transport properties, and finally the delicate question of the role of the temperature, in presence or absence of a thermal bath. I will also discuss what happens for other classes of potentials than the plain disorder, such as quasiperiodic potentials, or colored noise, both from a theoretical perspective but also in contact with recent experiments in cold atomic gases. I will point to the challenges in the field.

BIO:
Thierry Giamarchi studied in Toulouse and Marseille and after preparatory classes at the Lycée Thiers became a student at the École Normale Supérieure (1982). He passed his thesis under the direction of H.J. Schulz at the Paris-Sud University (now Paris-Saclay) in 1987.

He has been a permanent researcher at the CNRS since 1986, and during the period 1990-1992 did a postdoctoral fellowship at Bell Laboratories (USA). In 2002 he became full professor at the University of Geneva in the Department of Quantum Matter Physics (DQMP) and was head of this department from 2013 to 2019. He is currently vice-president (since 2017) of a Swiss association on materials with remarkable electronic properties (MaNEP).

In addition to his research activities, he has been in charge of several administrative activities such as the direction of the Department of Quantum Matter Physics (DQMP)(2013-2019), member of the Research Commission of the University of Geneva (2018-2020), member of the CNRS National Committee for Theoretical Physics (2000-2002), member of the Scientific Committee of the School of Physics of Les Houches (2007-2016) or member of the Scientific Council of the Commissariat à l’Énergie Atomique (CEA) (2015-2018).

Since 2013, he has been a member of the French Academy of sciences and a Fellow of the American Physical Society.

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