Lorentz Chair

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Lorentz Chair since 1955 2012 Subir Sachdev [lectures] 2011 Roger Penrose 2010 Thomas A. Witten [lectures] 2009 Kip S. Thorne [lectures] 2008 F. Duncan M. Haldane [lectures] 2007 Thomas W.B. Kibble 2006 David R. Nelson 2005 Peter Zoller [lectures] 2004 Leonard Susskind 2003 Leo P. Kadanoff 2002 John P. Preskill 2001 Howard C. Berg 2000 Chandra M. Varma 1999 Michael V. Berry 1998 Frank Wilczek 1997 Bertrand I. Halperin 1996 Yoseph Imry 1995 N. David Mermin 1994 Julius Wess 1993 Michael E. Fisher 1992 Alexander F. Andreev 1991 Pierre C. Hohenberg 1990 Bernie J. Alder 1989 Martinus J.G. Veltman 1988 Claude Cohen-Tannoudji 1987 Raymond L. Orbach 1986 Philippe Nozières 1985 Ben Widom 1984 Chen Ning Yang 1983 Irwin Oppenheim 1982 Léon van Hove 1981 Ryogo Kubo 1980 Anatole Abragam 1979 Ezechiel G.D. Cohen 1978 Pierre-Gilles de Gennes 1977 Victor F. Weisskopf 1976 Rudolph E. Peierls 1975 John Bardeen 1974 Roy J. Glauber 1973 Nicolaas Bloembergen 1972 Felix Bloch 1971 David Pines 1970 Lars Onsager 1969 Isaak M. Khalatnikov 1968 Elliott W. Montroll 1967 Christian Møller 1966 Herbert Fröhlich 1965 Wladyslaw Opechowski 1964 Oskar Klein 1963 Mark Kac 1962 Léon Rosenfeld 1961 Elliott W. Montroll 1960 John H. van Vleck 1959 John G. Kirkwood 1958 Walter H. Heitler 1957 Eugene P. Wigner 1956 John A. Wheeler 1955 George E. Uhlenbeck » portrait gallery « of Nobel laureate Lorentz professors

Each year an eminent theoretical physicist holds the Lorentz Chair. The 2012 Lorentz professor is Subir Sachdev, from Harvard University.

Professor Sachdev will give four lectures on

Stringing together the quantum phases of matter
Monday afternoons May 7, 14, 21, and June 4, 2012 (13.45-15.30 hours, De Sitterzaal, Oortgebouw).
In addition, he will present a Colloquium Ehrenfestii on Wednesday evening May 9.

Abstract: The quantum theory of many particle physics has entered a new terrain in the past thirty years. It has become clear that many new phases of quantum matter cannot be described by using adiabatic continuity to quantum states which are products of independent particle states, and new paradigms of the quantum behavior of many particles are needed. The new phases have subtle and long-range forms of many-particle quantum entanglement. I will survey theories of these phases, with examples drawn from experiments on high temperature superconductors of transition metal compounds, and on ultracold atoms in optical lattices. In recent years, new insights have emerged from the application of the gauge-gravity duality of string theory, and I will present the holographic theories of the strongly-coupled phases of quantum matter.

Topics of the four lectures (with abstracts):

• May 7: The superfluid-insulator quantum phase transition: field theory vs. holography
• May 14: Non-Fermi liquid metals: field theory vs. holography
• May 21: The onset of antiferromagnetism in metals I: from the cuprate superconductors to the heavy fermion compounds
• June 4: The onset of antiferromagnetism in metals II

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Signatures of the Lorentz professors on the wall of our old colloquium room.