Lorenzo Piroli, who has received his PhD in Statistical Physics at SISSA and is currently a postdoc researcher at Max Planck Institute for Quantum Optics in Munich, has been just awarded the 2019 edition of “Sergio Fubini” Prize assigned by INFN - Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare. Lorenzo defended his thesis, entitled Nonequilibrium Quantum States of Matter, in 2018.
“If we leave a cup of coffee on the table, we can predict with absolute certainty that it will be found cold just a few minutes later”, says Lorenzo explaining his research, “while these kinds of thermalization processes are ubiquitous in nature, it was recently realized that a special class of one-dimensional quantum systems can elude this mechanism, exhibiting surprising features that can be measured in modern cold-atomic laboratories. My PhD research has focused on the study of these systems, contributing to the advance in their theoretical understanding, especially in out-of-equilibrium settings”.
The Prize was established by INFN to celebrate the Italian Physicist Sergio Fubini and his remarkable contribution to Quantum Field Theory and String Theory.
“I was honoured to receive such an award, but I was also grateful to all my collaborators without whom I couldn't have carried out my research. In particular, I want to thank my supervisor, Pasquale Calabrese, also for his continuous support, and all the members of SISSA group of Statistical Physics, which was an exceptionally lively and intellectually stimulating environment to be a part of.”