Non-Equilibrium Universality: From Classical to Quantum and Back

Coordinators: Pasquale Calabrese, Leticia F. Cugliandolo, Mohammad Maghrebi, and Jamir Marino

Scientific Advisors: Juergen Berges, Mehran Kardar, Monika Schleier-Smith, and Jörg Schmiedmayer

Universality is ubiquitous in modern physics: diverse and seemingly unrelated phenomena can be often reduced into a handful of effective theories with few key organizing principles. Although universality and the theory of phase transitions are well established in equilibrium systems encompassing diverse fields from condensed matter to high energy physics, non-equilibrium universality has remained largely elusive. However, recent experiments ranging from cold gases to quantum many-body optics as well as solid-state systems suggest that the vast diversity of non-equilibrium phenomena could be described with few essential ingredients.

This program aims at identifying universal aspects of far-from-equilibrium phenomena by bringing together the diverse communities working on classical statistical physics, quantum condensed matter physics, atomic, molecular, and optical physics, high-energy physics and heavy-ion collisions. The activities of the workshop will be driven by a number of open questions. Which concepts of universality can arise at the interface of diverse communities? Which novel experiments can be designed to sharpen our notion of non-equilibrium universality? What is a non-equilibrium phase of matter? Is there a mapping between classical and quantum phases of matter? Can quantum entanglement be employed as a useful order parameter to characterize far-from-equilibrium universality? Which aspects of non-equilibrium universality in high energy physics could potentially impact the developments in condensed matter and AMO physics, and vice versa?