Cold atomic gases trapped and manipulated on atom chips allow the realization of seminal one-dimensional (1d) quantum many-body problems in an isolated and well controlled environment. In this context, this thesis presents an extensive experimental study of non-equilibrium dynamics in 1d Bose gases, with a focus on processes that go beyond simple dephasing dynamics. It reports on the observation of recurrences of coherence in the post-quench dynamics of a pair of 1d Bose gases and presents a detailed study of their decay. The latter represents the first observation of phonon-phonon scattering in these systems. Furthermore, the thesis investigates a novel cooling mechanism occurring in Bose gases subjected to a uniform loss of particles. Together, the results presented show a wide range of non-equilibrium phenomena occurring in 1d Bose gases and establish them as an ideal testbed for many-body physics beyond equilibrium.

"Nonequilibrium Carrier Dynamics in Semiconductors" is a well-established, specialist conference, held every two years, covering a range of topics of current interest to R&D in semiconductor physics/materials, optoelectronics, nanotechnology, quantum information processing. Papers accepted for publication are selected and peer-reviewed by members of the Program Committee during the conference to ensure both rapid and high-quality processing.

Phonons are always present in the solid state even at an absolute temperature of 0 K where zero point vibrations still abound. Moreover, phonons interact with all other excitations of the solid state and, thereby, influence most of its properties. Historically experimental information on phonon transport came from measurements of thermal conductivity. Over the past two decades much more, and much more detailed, information on phonon transport and on many of the inherent phonon interaction processes have come to light from experiments which use nonequilibrium phonons to study their dynamics. The resultant research field has most recently blossomed with the development of ever more sophisticated experimental and theoretical methods which can be applied to it. In fact, the field is moving so rapidly that new members of the research community have difficulties in keeping up to date. This NATO Advanced Study Institute (ASI) was organized with the objective of overcoming the information barrier between those expert in the field and those who are new to it. Thus it was decided to (i) organize a set of tutorially based lectures covering most of the important facets in the field, and (ii) to produce an Institute proceedings which would serve both as the first general textbook, as well as a valuable reference book, for this field of knowledge.

The 1995 observation of Bose-Einstein condensation in dilute atomic vapours spawned the field of ultracold, degenerate quantum gases. Unprecedented developments in experimental design and precision control have led to quantum gases becoming the preferred playground for designer quantum many-body systems.This self-contained volume provides a broad overview of the principal theoretical techniques applied to non-equilibrium and finite temperature quantum gases. Covering Bose-Einstein condensates, degenerate Fermi gases, and the more recently realised exciton-polariton condensates, it fills a gap by linking between different methods with origins in condensed matter physics, quantum field theory, quantum optics, atomic physics, and statistical mechanics. Thematically organised chapters on different methodologies, contributed by key researchers using a unified notation, provide the first integrated view of the relative merits of individual approaches, aided by pertinent introductory chapters and the guidance of editorial notes.Both graduate students and established researchers wishing to understand the state of the art will greatly benefit from this comprehensive and up-to-date review of non-equilibrium and finite temperature techniques in the exciting and expanding field of quantum gases and liquids./a

The relaxation of isolated quantum many-body systems is a major unsolved problem of modern physics, which is connected to many fundamental questions. However, realizations of quantum many-body systems which are both well isolated from their environment and accessible to experimental study are scarce. In recent years, the field has experienced rapid progress, partly attributed to ultra-cold atoms. This book presents the experimental study of a relaxation phenomenon occurring in a one-dimensional bosonic Josephson junction. The system consists of two 1D quasi Bose-Einstein condensates of 87Rb, magnetically trapped on an atom chip. Using radio-frequency dressing, the author deforms a single harmonic trap, in which the atoms are initially condensed, into a double-well potential and realizes a splitting of the wave function. A large spatial separation and a tilt of the double-well enable the preparation of a broad variety of initial states by precisely adjusting the initial population and relative phase of the two wave packets, while preserving the phase coherence. By re-coupling the two wave packets, the author investigates tunneling regimes such as Josephson (plasma) oscillations and macroscopic quantum self-trapping. In both regimes, the tunneling dynamics exhibits a relaxation to a phase-locked equilibrium state contradicting theoretical predictions. The experimental results are supported with an empirical model that allows quantitative discussions according to various experimental parameters. These results illustrate how strongly the non-equilibrium dynamics differ from the equilibrium one, which is well described by thermodynamics and statistical physics.

This work presents a series of experiments with ultracold one-dimensional Bose gases, which establish said gases as an ideal model system for exploring a wide range of non-equilibrium phenomena. With the help of newly developed tools, like full distributions functions and phase correlation functions, the book reveals the emergence of thermal-like transient states, the light-cone-like emergence of thermal correlations and the observation of generalized thermodynamic ensembles. This points to a natural emergence of classical statistical properties from the microscopic unitary quantum evolution, and lays the groundwork for a universal framework of non-equilibrium physics. The thesis investigates a central question that is highly contested in quantum physics: how and to which extent does an isolated quantum many-body system relax? This question arises in many diverse areas of physics, and many of the open problems appear at vastly different energy, time and length scales, ranging from high-energy physics and cosmology to condensed matter and quantum information. A key challenge in attempting to answer this question is the scarcity of quantum many-body systems that are both well isolated from the environment and accessible for experimental study.

This volume contains invited and contributed papers of the Ninth International Conference on Hot Carriers in Semiconductors (HCIS-9), held July 3 I-August 4, 1995 in Chicago, Illinois. In all, the conference featured 15 invited oral presentations, 60 contributed oral presentations, and 105 poster presentations, and an international contingent of 170 scientists. As in recent conferences, the main themes of the conference were related to nonlinear transport in semiconductor heterojunctions and included Bloch oscillations, laser diode structures, and femtosecond spectroscopy. Interesting questions related to nonlinear transport, size quantization, and intersubband scattering were addressed that are relevant to the new quantum cascade laser. Many lectures were geared toward quantum wires and dots and toward nanostructures and mesoscopic systems in general. It is expected that such research will open new horizons to nonlinear transport studies. An attempt was made by the program committee to increase the number of presen tations related directly to devices. The richness of nonlocal hot electron effects that were discussed as a result, in our opinion, suggests that future conferences should further encourage reports on such device research. On behalf of the Program and International Advisory Committees, we thank the participants, who made the conference a successful and pleasant experience, and the support of the Army Research Office, the Office of Naval Research, and the Beckman Institute of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. We are also indebted to Mrs. Sara Starkey and Mrs.

The 26th International Conference on the Physics of Semiconductors was held from 29 July to 2 August 2002 at the Edinburgh International Conference Centre. It is the premier meeting in the field of semiconductor physics and attracted over 1000 participants from leading academic, governmental and industrial institutions in some 50 countries around t

Quantum Thermodynamics is a novel research field which explores the emergence of thermodynamics from quantum theory and addresses thermodynamic phenomena which appear in finite-size, non-equilibrium and finite-time contexts. Blending together elements from open quantum systems, statistical mechanics, quantum many-body physics, and quantum information theory, it pinpoints thermodynamic advantages and barriers emerging from genuinely quantum properties such as quantum coherence and correlations. Owing to recent experimental efforts, the field is moving quickly towards practical applications, such as nano-scale heat devices, or thermodynamically optimised protocols for emergent quantum technologies. Starting from the basics, the present volume reviews some of the most recent developments, as well as some of the most important open problems in quantum thermodynamics. The self-contained chapters provide concise and topical introductions to researchers who are new to the field. Experts will find them useful as a reference for the current state-of-the-art. In six sections the book covers topics such as quantum heat engines and refrigerators, fluctuation theorems, the emergence of thermodynamic equilibrium, thermodynamics of strongly coupled systems, as well as various information theoretic approaches including Landauer's principle and thermal operations. It concludes with a section dedicated to recent quantum thermodynamics experiments and experimental prospects on a variety of platforms ranging from cold atoms to photonic systems, and NV centres.

Authored by a well-known expert in the field of nonequilibrium statistical physics, this book is a coherent presentation of the subject suitable for masters and PhD students, as well as postdocs in physics and related disciplines. Starting from a general discussion of irreversibility and entropy, the method of nonequilibrium statistical operator is presented as a general concept. Stochastic processes are introduced as a necessary prerequisite to describe the evolution of a nonequilibrium state. Different standard approaches such as master equations, kinetic equations and linear response theory, are derived after special assumptions. This allows for an insight into the problems of nonequilibrium physics, a discussion of the limits of the approaches, and suggestions for improvements. The method of thermodynamic Green's function is outlined that allows for the systematic quantum statistical treatment of many-body systems. Applications and typical examples are given, as well as fully worked problems.