Quantum Science of Light and Matter (Schmidt)
Chair for Theoretical Physics V (kps_lab)
One of the central paradigms in modern science is to focus on collective behaviour and organising principles. In many scientific disciplines ranging from natural to social sciences it is a key issue to understand the complex behaviour of many entities compared to the properties of a single one, e.g., besides many others, in studying the climate of the earth, our brain, in investigating swarm intelligence, in predicting changes in our society or trends in financial markets. In short, this can be expressed by „more is different“.
The collective behaviour of matter as well as its interplay with light is therefore one of the most important topics of modern science. Understanding it is crucial in basic research, as it holds the key to a variety of correlated many-body states – realised for example in spin liquids or superconductors. At the same time, it is clear that this understanding forms the basis for many (quantum) technological applications which define the modern era. In particular, it is decisive to gain a systematic understanding of collective phenomena in order to identify fundamentally new behaviour.
My general research interests are emergent collective phenomena of quantum many-body systems which are relevant for condensed matter physics, atomic physics, and quantum information. Interactions between various degrees of freedom lead to novel states of matter with fascinating properties and interesting collective properties. Furthermore, it is an important aspect of my research to develop modern theoretical tools to treat microscopic models of correlated systems in order to predict and to pinpoint emergent quantum phenomena in real systems.
Prof. Dr. Kai Phillip Schmidt
Staudtstr. 7/B3
91058 Erlangen
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