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Speaker: Rosario Fazio Date: 17 July 2008 Venue: Physics Conference Room, S13 Level M
Title: Quantum phase transitions in arrays of coupled QED cavities
Abstract: Recent proposals of realizing condensed phases in cavity-QED like systems opened a number
of new exciting possibilities in the physics of strongly interacting photonic systems. Arrays of
coupled QED cavities have been shown to have superfluid, insulating and glassy phases. They
can be used for transferring quantum information and for simulating interacting spin systems.
Coupled cavities can be realized in a wide range of physical systems, from nanocavities in
photonic crystals to Cooper pair boxes in superconducting resonators.
After a brief introduction to the field, I will review the main features of the phase diagram and of
the signatures of the various phases. I will discuss how, in principle, it might be possible to distinguish
between the different phases by measuring photons fluctuations. I will finally discuss dynamical
instabilities in these arrays when control parameters are varied in time.
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