Hydrodynamics of quantum critical points

by Carlos Hoyos (Tel Aviv)

Tuesday 24 Sept 2013, 15:00 → 16:00 Europe/Rome

248 (Building C, First Floor)

Joint INFN/SNS/UniPi Theory Group Seminar Abstract: A phase transition at zero temperature may occur as the ground state of a many-body system is changed by tuning an external parameter. The boundary between the two phases is a quantum critical point, characterized by a scaling symmetry. Quantum critical behaviour appears in a variety of condensed matter systems such as graphene, cold atoms and strange metals and also in some strongly coupled gauge theories at finite density. At non-zero temperature it is expected that the system is described by hydrodynamics. I discuss how the symmetries at the critical point constrain the hydrodynamic description and what new effects may be present relative to theories with conformal invariance (relativistic or non-relativistic).

Slides QCPTalk3.pdf