Strongly correlated quantum fluids: ultracold quantum gases, quantum chromodynamic plasmas and holographic duality
Author(s)
Adams, Allan; Carr, Lincoln D.; Schafer, Thomas; Steinberg, Peter; Thomas, John E.
DownloadAdams-2012-Strongly correlated quantum fluids.pdf (3.108Mb)
PUBLISHER_CC
Publisher with Creative Commons License
Creative Commons Attribution
Terms of use
Metadata
Show full item recordAbstract
Strongly correlated quantum fluids are phases of matter that are intrinsically quantum mechanical and that do not have a simple description in terms of weakly interacting quasiparticles. Two systems that have recently attracted a great deal of interest are the quark–gluon plasma, a plasma of strongly interacting quarks and gluons produced in relativistic heavy ion collisions, and ultracold atomic Fermi gases, very dilute clouds of atomic gases confined in optical or magnetic traps. These systems differ by 19 orders of magnitude in temperature, but were shown to exhibit very similar hydrodynamic flows. In particular, both fluids exhibit a robustly low shear viscosity to entropy density ratio, which is characteristic of quantum fluids described by holographic duality, a mapping from strongly correlated quantum field theories to weakly curved higher dimensional classical gravity. This review explores the connection between these fields, and also serves as an introduction to the focus issue of New Journal of Physics on 'Strongly Correlated Quantum Fluids: From Ultracold Quantum Gases to Quantum Chromodynamic Plasmas'. The presentation is accessible to the general physics reader and includes discussions of the latest research developments in all three areas.
Date issued
2012-11Department
Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Center for Theoretical Physics; Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of PhysicsJournal
New Journal of Physics
Publisher
IOP Publishing
Citation
Adams, Allan et al. “Strongly Correlated Quantum Fluids: Ultracold Quantum Gases, Quantum Chromodynamic Plasmas and Holographic Duality.” New Journal of Physics 14.11 (2012): 115009. © 2012 IOP Publishing
Version: Final published version
ISSN
1367-2630