Physics Colloquium: Random Measurements and Glassy Freezing in Quantum Liquids

Prof. Paul Goldbart (Stony Brook University)

Abstract: It has recently become appreciated that measurement sequences can induce qualitative changes, such as phase transitions, in the collective behavior of macroscopic quantum systems. Measurement sequences thus provide routes for inducing quantum-correlated states of matter that complement the conventional routes associated with time-evolution generated by appropriate Hamiltonians. I shall discuss the setting of macroscopic systems of quantum particles in which random pairs of particles are subjected to certain types of measurement at random sequences of times. We shall see that, if performed sufficiently frequently, such measurements can induce random freezing in many-particle systems.

Work done with Pushkar Mohile (Stony Brook University), Sarang Gopalakrishnan (Princeton University), and Andrew C. Potter (University of British Columbia).

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