Aspen Center for Physics 2014 Winter Conference
"Beyond Quasiparticles: New Paradigms for Quantum Fluids"
January 12 - 18, 2014

(Formal sessions Monday morning, January 12 - Friday noon, January 17.)

The standard paradigm for thinking about quantum many body systems relies crucially on the concept of elementary excitations/quasiparticles. Remarkable developments in Condensed Matter Physics in the last two decades have shown the existence of quantum fluids where such a quasiparticle picture breaks down. Finding experimental ways to characterize such fluids and theoretical ways to think about them is one of the grand intellectual challenges in physics today.

A number of recent developments have invigorated this area. New techniques such as laser-based photoemission spectroscopy have provided a revised understanding of the electronic properties of the normal state of the cuprate high temperature superconductors. Other materials such as the quasi-two-dimensional organic salts show electrical insulation while displaying metallic thermal conduction at low temperature - clearly something strikingly different from what conventional insulators do.

This Aspen Winter Conference will seek to explore alternates to the standard quasiparticle paradigm. Both experimental and theoretical developments will be discussed. Experimental systems will include non-fermi liquid systems such as the cuprates and heavy electron metals near quantum criticality, non-fermi liquid realizations in quantum dots, and various candidate quantum spin liquid materials. Theoretical progress using various effective field theories of such systems, dynamical mean field theories, and emerging connections to other areas of physics such as quantum information and gauge-gravity dualities will be discussed. The conference is timely and can set the stage for rapid progress in the near future on this fundamental area of physics research.

We plan to have eight talk sessions and one poster session. Each session will be started off by a chair giving a brief overview (15 minutes) of the subject followed by several 25+10-minute talks. The overview will help participants to better appreciate the context for the talks in each session - in particular how they fit in with the theme of the conference. We expect to attract a diverse group of participants with a healthy mix of junior and senior physicists.

Organizers:

Confirmed invited speakers:

Links:

Program , Monday morning, January 12 - Friday noon, January 17, 2014
Poster session program .

Aspen Center for Physics information

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Aspen Center for Physics
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Our sponsors:

Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation

National Science Foundation