Quantum Thermodynamics
& Ultracold Gases
Quantum systems composed of many interacting particles exhibit macroscopic wave-like phenomena that challenge classical intuition. At the heart of this field lies the study of ultracold atomic gases, particularly Bose-Einstein condensates (BECs). These "superfluids" emerge when bosonic atoms are cooled to temperatures near absolute zero, causing them to collapse into a single quantum state and behave as a unified, macroscopic entity. Beyond condensation, contemporary quantum theory explores the frontier of quantum information thermodynamics. This area investigates coupled flows of energy, entropy, and information within many-body systems, seeking to define how quantum correlations and entanglement drive thermodynamic processes.
Projects
An overview of my research projects, including the systems I study and the analytical and computational approaches I use. Colored links will send you to the corresponding publications.
Quantum information thermodynamics
Quantum systems that extract work from thermal reservoirs must dissipate energy to process information and maintain control. A prototypical model for this is a quantum information engine, which uses measurement and feedback to convert information into work. My work characterizes power-efficiency-information trade-offs in these quantum thermal machines to find bounds on energy conversion when accounting for the finite time and energetic costs of quantum measurements.
Wetting in BECs
Multi-component quantum gases exhibit complex phase separation and surface phenomena that arise from the competition between intra-species and inter-species interactions. When in contact, these multi-component mixtures can exhibit a wetting transition, where a layer of one quantum fluid forms at the interface between the two other components. My work focuses on characterizing the type of wetting transition (first-order, critical, degenerate, etc.) in 3-component BECs, as well as the associated nucleation transitions, using the double-parabola approximation and exact results.
Quantum depletion
A dilute Bose gas is a collection of weakly interacting bosons at low density, which can transition into a Bose-Einstein condensate when a critical temperature is crossed. However, due to quantum fluctuations in the BEC, some particles with nonzero momentum reside in excited states instead of the ground state, being pushed out of the condensate. My work focuses on characterizing this quantum depletion effect based on the Improved Hartree Fock method.