Nonequilibrium quantum dynamics of correlated systems

Nonequilibrium quantum dynamics plays an important role in various fields rooted in both natural sciences as well as applied sciences. Among them are ultrafast laser spectroscopy and transport phenomena in condensed matter physics, quantum optics, semiconductor devices, and also cosmology. In several systems of these diverse fields the constituents are strongly correlated and manybody effects have to be taken into account to fully understand their physics. The enormous progress in controlling optical and atomic systems lead to the advent of "synthetic" manybody systems, including ensembles of ultracold atoms and light matter systems. One key property of synthetic manybody systems is that microscopic parameters are extremely well known and also highly controllable. This renders synthetic manybody systems as ideal candidates for studying nonequilibrium quantum dynamics and also poses new challenges for theory since vastly different energy and time scales are relevant as compared to condensed matter physics. Here, I propose to study on the one hand the transient manybody dynamics of correlated impurity systems, following a very special, local quantum quench, whose protocol is determined by established quantum optics tools of Ramsey, Hahn spin-echo or Rabi type. The proposed experiments, allow to explore universal impurity physics in regimes not accessible in more traditional condensed matter experiments. On the other hand, I am interested in the nonequilibrium steady state of light matter systems, where questions concerning phases and their quantum criticality seem to be extremely relevant. From finding answers to these questions, I also hope to contribute in answering the global theoretical question about universality in the nonequilibrium quantum dynamics of strongly correlated manybody systems. Insight into nonequilibrium properties of quantum manybody systems obtained from a fruitful interplay between experiments and theory of synthetic manybody systems might help to pave the way for the improvement and invention of high-tech applications, which might be rooted in the fields of material science, energy sciences, or quantum information sciences.

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