Beecroft Building, Department of Physics, University of Oxford, Parks Road, Oxford, OX1 3PU
Professor John Chalker, University of Oxford
Abstract
For almost a century, much of the effort studying many-body quantum systems has focussed on behaviour at low temperature, or in solvable models with many conserved quantities. Recently, minimal models have been developed which give a window onto dynamics in generic systems, unrestricted by temperature or conservation laws. These models make it possible to explore the main features expected in chaotic many-body dynamics using quite simple analytical calculations. This is progress that I think goes far beyond what could reasonably have been dreamed of ten years ago, but it is built on foundations laid in the 1950s. I aim to give an overview of the route towards understanding generic many-body quantum systems, going from foundations in nuclear physics, via quantum billiards and dirty metals, to the recent advances.