Laboratoire de Physique Théorique
Toulouse - UMR 5152

Professor A. J. Leggett, the John D. and Catherine T. Macarthur Professor at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, will visit the Laboratoire de Physique Théorique (LPT-IRSAMC) of Toulouse (Université Paul Sabatier-CNRS, France) during the month of April 2012.

[bleu]The LPT is organizing a workshop from the 4th to the 6th of April 2012 in his honor entitled From Quantum Foundations to Quantum Fluids, with 3 sessions focused on :[/bleu]

 Foundations of Quantum Mechanics
Quantum mechanics differs profoundly from classical mechanics by the apparent impossibility to attribute realistic local values to all observables for which this is possible classically. Einstein famously wondered throughout his life whether a deeper, realistic theory might exist. The quantum foundations session of the workshop will focus on recent theoretical and experimental developments that try to probe this question.

 Superconductivity
Superconductivity is a spectacular quantum effect, whereby electric current flows through a conductor without dissipating any energy at all. For many metals, it is beautifully explained by coupling of electrons to lattice vibrations. This session will unfold around yet-unsolved cases where such an explanation is unlikely to apply.

 Quantum Liquids and Solids
At very low temperature, instead of freezing into a solid ice, some liquids are dominated by quantum fluctuations and may become "superfluid", or even more exotic : "supersolid". A notorious and historical example for such a beautifull physics is Helium. More recently, ultracold gases provide another astonishing playground. This session will focus on some recent advances regarding such quantum fluids and solids.

Workshop Location : Amphi Concorde Batiment U4 download the map

Scientific Commitee

John Palmeri palmeri@irsamc.ups-tlse.fr
Daniel Braun braun@irsamc.ups-tlse.fr
Nicolas Laflorencie laflo@irsamc.ups-tlse.fr
Didier Poilblanc didier@irsamc.ups-tlse.fr
Revaz Ramazashvili ramazashvili@irsamc.ups-tlse.fr

Supported by

Labex NEXT, IRSAMC, CNRS, Université Paul Sabatier, CFCAM-GSO

Schedule (download the final program)

 Wednesday 4th of April - afternoon : [fond jaune]Foundations of Quantum Mechanics[/fond jaune] Chairman : D. Braun
M. Arndt (Vienna) [E]
D. Estève (Saclay) [E]
F. Laloë (ENS Paris) [T]
R. Renner (ETHZ) [T]

 Thursday 5th of April : [fond jaune]Superconductivity[/fond jaune] Chairmen : D. Poilblanc, R. Ramazashvili
S. Davis (Cornell) [E]
M. Norman (ANL, Chicago) [T]
C. Proust (LNCMI, Toulouse) [E]
M. Rice (ETHZ) [T]
D. J. Scalapino (UCSB) [T]
D. van der Marel (Geneve) [E]

 Friday 6th of April : [fond jaune]Quantum Liquids and Solids[/fond jaune] Chairman : N. Laflorencie
S. Balibar (ENS Paris) [E]
S. Davis (Cornell) [E]
T. Giamarchi (Genève) [T]
N. Prokofiev (Amherst) [T]
L. Pitaevskii (Trento) [T] (to be confirmed)
Final Speaker : A. J. Leggett (Urbana)

[E] = Experiment [T] = Theory

Local information

 List of hotels
 Maps

Acknowledgement