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Atomic gases cooled to Nanokelvin temperatures are a new exciting tool to study a broad range of quantum phenomena. In particular, an outstanding and rapid control over the fundamental parameters, such as interaction strength, spin composition, and dimensionality allows to realize and observe many different situations far from equilibrium. Long-standing questions such as the thermalization dynamics can be investigated. Theoretical studies of this question have a long history, in particular, in the classical Fermi-Pasta-Ulam-Tsingou problem, a coupled chain of harmonic oscillators under the influence of further higher order couplings. Even though a lot of progress has been made, up to day, a complete understanding is missing. In the first part of my talk, I will report on recent progress on the investigation of relaxation dynamics in isolated quantum systems in connection with experimental studies. In the second part of my talk, I will address the question of the influence of a coupling to an environment on the system dynamics. We find that the environment can cause complex relaxation dynamics often described by spatially dependent classical diffusion equations.

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Prof. Dr. Corinna Kollath, Universität Genf
Seminarraum Theoretische Physik
Contact: not specified