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Prof. Roy Glauber (picture by Carmen Secanella)
Prof. Roy Glauber (picture by Carmen Secanella)

Prof. Roy Glauber visits ICFO

ICFO hosts Prof. Roy Glauber, 2005 Nobel Prize in Physics.

September 07, 2007
Prof. Glauber visited ICFO from the 7th to the 13th of September. The direct purpose of his visit is a collaboration with Prof. Maciej Lewenstein and his group. At ICFO, Prof. Lewenstein and Prof. Glauber will work together in quantum optics and its applications for quantum computation, superfluidics, etc.

Prof. Roy Glauber is one of the founders of theoretical quantum optics and his Nobel Prize was given in fact for the formulation of quantum theory of the coherence of light and in particular the theory of photon counting.

In recent years it became possible to count individual atoms or atomic spins in clouds consisting of say 1000 to 1000000 ultracold atoms, which may be bosons (like photons) or fermions. Roy has formulated 2-3 years ago a generalization of his photon counting theory to atoms of fermionic quantum statistics, and Maciej's group is applying this generalization to particular systems that can be realized in the laboratory: strongly correlated one dimensional Fermi gases, or spin chains. These systems exhibit at zero temperature the so called quantum phase transitions: they change qualitatively say from localized (insulating) to superfluid etc.

At ICFO Roy also gave a seminar-meeting “How to get a Nobel – from the Manhattan Project to Stockholm Gala which had a form of an interview-discussion, open to questions especially by students. We discussed the history of Roy scientific achievements, his life, friendships, his life before and after the Nobel, and even some gossips. Another talk entitled “100 years of light quanta” was given at UAB.
(left to right) Profs. van Hulst, Lewenstein, Torner, Biegert and Acín with Prof. Roy Glauber