Quantum thermodynamics of ultracold atomic gases

Project Level: PhD, Masters, Honours

The Second Quantum Revolution is currently underway, and represents the merging of thermodynamic concepts of heat and work, born during the Industrial Revolution, with quantum concepts of information processing and entanglement. But how do the classical ideas on the nature of heat and work translate to quantum devices? Do the laws of classical thermodynamics also dictate the behaviour of processes at a quantum level, or whether new laws are needed? The project intends to shed light on these fundamental questions by developing state-of-the-art computational models of quantum-scale machines and heat engines using the platform of ultracold atomic gases. Such gases represent arcehtypical examples of interacting many-body systems, however, characterising their equilibrium and nonequilibrium properties is a chellenging problem. The knowledge arising from the project is expected to underpin experimental breakthroughs in this emerging field and aid the development of new quantum technologies.