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Virtual photons in ultra-strongly coupled systems

Virtual particles are excitations which dress real particles, and are a fundamental aspect of quantum field theory. They enable a correct description of fundamental forces and help describe what properties of "real" particles we can actually observe. In recent years, the field of cavity-QED has evolved to the point that these concepts of virtual and real particles can be both probed and manipulated in experiments. The archetypical example is the dressed ground-state of an ultra-strongly coupled system, which contains virtual photons that cannot be observed unless some external manipulation of the system is made (via e.g., switching-off the coupling between light and matter). With external control, one can convert virtual excitations into real particles, and vice-versa.

 

 

The aim of this workshop is to bring together experts on this exciting field from around the world, and explore both the fundamental description and understanding of these phenomena, and also find new applications for these effects in devices.  

EPR steering, temporal steering, and correlations in quantum theory

Steering, as originally described by Schrödinger, and discussed by Einstein, Podolsky and Rosen in their seminal "EPR" paper, is a unique non-local feature of quantum theory. It says that, because of the entanglement present in certain shared quantum states, one party can "steer" or control the state of another distant party with a combination of only local measurements and a classical communication channel. The exciting aspect of this phenomenon arises when one realizes that such correlations cannot be described by local theories, and that this "non-local" control is both instantaneous and counter-intuitive.

 

 

In recent years steering has been recast in terms of resource theory, and its role in quantum computation and quantum information protocols has been clarified immensely. In addition, recasting this resource task in terms of temporal correlations instead of spatial ones has helped clarify the symmetry between temporal and spatial domains in quantum theory, and enabled the derivation of several "temporal steering" measures with applications in open-system theory and quantum networks. This workshop focuses on both spatial and temporal steering, and aims to bring together experts on both topics to clarify the interpretation of these phenomena and open up new avenues of research in this exciting field.

Ultra-strongly coupled systems

Following the steps of the previous "Virtual photons in ultra-strongly coupled system", the aim of this workshop is to bring together experts in the field to share their newest ideas and encourage collaborations.

Ultra-strongly coupled systems with strong dissipation

Following the steps of the earlier workshops, the focus of this meeting is the influence of strong coupling to an environment.  This includes USC systems experiencing strong dissipation, and the influence of that dissipation of USC effects, but also 'USC' coupling to an environment itself, and how hybridization between system and environment also leads to interesting physical phenomena.  The number of physical systems that experience this type of interaction is broad, and includes plasmonics, physical chemistry (light harvesting complexes), and superconducting qubits strongly coupled to open transmission lines.  This small workshop brings together experts from all of these fields to share their insights and methodologies.

Workshop on quantum correlations, open-systems and QuTiP development

This final workshop in the series is more open-form than the previous installments, and spans 4-6 weeks of discussions and informal seminars.   The main goal is to bring together people working on correlations in quantum theory, including the topics of spatial and temporal steering, people working on open quantum systems, and those working on open-source software development (primarily our package QuTiP).  This will enable open discussions, the planning of future efforts in these over-lapping fields, and the identification of how both topics can contribute to QuTiP.

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In addition to the sponsors listed on the main page, the QuTiP aspects of this workshop were supported by:

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Nori Group, RIKEN Theoretical Quantum Physics Laboratory (Wako, Japan)

http://dml.riken.jp

 

Blais Group, Université de Sherbrooke (Quebec, Canada)

https://www.physique.usherbrooke.ca/blais/

 

NumFOCUS

https://numfocus.org/

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