Cristiano Ciuti, professor at Paris Diderot University and leader of the theoretical group of MPQ has won a European Research Council Consolidator Grant. The project is entitled ‘Theory of strongly correlated photonic systems’ (CORPHO).
In artificial quantum system such as semiconductor photonic microstructures or superconducting resonators, it is now possible to have strong interactions between photons confined in a cavity (photon box). By considering lattices of coupled cavities, researchers can realize in a controlled way strongly correlated photonic systems with quantum phases originating from the competition between photon hopping between cavities, photon-photon repulsion/attraction on the same cavity site, optical pumping and dissipation. The complexity of these systems increases exponentially with the number of cavity sites, representing an enormous theoretical challenge. The project CORPHO will explore original ideas to develop novel theoretical methods of non-equilibrium quantum manybody physics to explore and predict quantum phases of these new systems, which are attracting a great deal of interest at the international level.
