ABSTRACT: The time evolution of a driven quantum system can be strongly affected by dissipation. Although this mainly implies that the system relaxes to a steady state, in some cases it can lead to the appearance of new phases and trigger emergent dynamics. I will report on experiments where we dispersively couple a quantum gas to an optical cavity. When the dissipation via cavity losses and the coherent timescales are comparable, we find a regime of persistent oscillations leading to a topological pumping of the atoms. Furthermore, I will report on the observation of a dissipation-stabilized phase in a system with tunable decay.

BIO:

• - studied in Tübingen (Germany) and Uppsala (Sweden)
• - PhD at ETH Zurich (Critical behavior of a Bose gas)
• - Postdoc at JILA / Boulder (Ground-state cooling of a cavity optomechanical device)
• - since 2013 permanent researcher at ETH Zurich focusing on quantum gases in optical cavities
• - some highlights: realization of an extended Bose, Hubbard model, realization of a supersolid

Q-FARM Seminars are held biweekly on Wednesdays, from 12-1pm. See website for our upcoming schedule.