The traditional Boltzmann Lecture for 2023 will be held on Wednesday, February 22nd, at 15:00 in room 128-129. The seminar will be held by Fabian Essler, Professorial Research Fellow at The Rudolf Peierls Centre for Theoretical Physics at the University of Oxford, with the title Eigenstate Thermalization and Conservation Laws.
Abstract: How do isolated many-particle quantum systems relax and ultimately give rise to the laws of Statistical Mechanics is a question that has exercised theoretical physicists since the early days of Quantum Theory. Much of our current understanding is based on a set of ideas known as the Eigenstate Thermalization Hypothesis (ETH). The latter provides statistical information of properties of energy eigenstates of “generic” systems, viewed through the lens of “few-body” physical observables. After reviewing the basics of eigenstates thermalization I turn to the question what takes the role of the ETH for integrable many-particle quantum systems. These are characterized by the existence of a macroscopic number of conservation laws, which lead to a much richer structure of energy eigenstates at finite energy densities.
Fabian Essler is a condensed matter theorist who focuses on low dimensional quantum many-body systems. He has a long-standing interest in quantum integrable models and classical driven diffusive systems. He co-authored a monograph on the exact solution of the one dimensional Hubbard model. Some of his current research interests include non-equilibrium evolution in quantum many-body systems, finite-temperature dynamical response in integrable models, and stochastic quantum dynamics.