Ultracold Atoms Far from Equilibrium
For more than a decade, physicists have sought to use ultracold atoms to simulate more complex quantum systems, such as real materials, which often exhibit unusual and poorly understood properties. The hope is that these comparatively simple atomic systems will help shed light on longstanding mysteries about why some materials, for example high-temperature superconductors, behave the way they do. However, while real materials are almost always found in (or at least very close to) thermal equilibrium, ultracold atoms typically aren't, and this has been a major impediment to simulating the former with the latter. An optimist might say, to the contrary, that while real materials are almost always found in (or at least very close to) thermal equilibrium, ultracold atoms typically aren't, and therefore we have an entirely unexplored quantum regime to study! In this talk, I will take the more optimistic point of view, and describe some of the remarkable new insights ultracold atoms have enabled into the behavior of quantum systems when they are pushed far from equilibrium.