Physics Colloquium - "Intimations of universality in nonequilibrium strongly correlated quantum systems" Presented by Professor Aditi Mitra - New York University

It has been hard enough determining the ground states of strongly interacting quantum systems, is the study of their nonequilibrium properties totally hopeless? In this talk I will give an overview of recent results obtained in my group and elsewhere where it has been shown that despite these systems being highly complicated, one can still uncover many universal features. I will give examples involving nonequilibrium phases and phase transitions,  topological properties remarkably robust to heating, and out-of-time ordered correlators which are objects that quantify how information propagates and chaos develops. Finally I will end with some hopeful possibilities for engineering driven lattice models that can host non-abelian excitations, key objects for storing quantum information, and outline future prospects for the field. Aditi Mitra obtained her B.Sc. in Physics at Presidency College, Calcutta, India (1993), her M.Sc. in Physics at the Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur, India  (1995) and her Ph.D. in Physics at Indiana University, Bloomington USA (2002). After postdoctoral research at Columbia University, NY and University of Toronto, she joined NYU-NY in September 2006.