The International Workshop on Quantum Vacuum in Matter, which will be held on October 11-13, 2023, on the campus of Rice University in Houston, Texas, U.S.A., will bring together world leaders to discuss recent advances and discoveries related to the interactions of fluctuating electromagnetic fields, or zero-point fields, of the quantum vacuum with matter, especially materials placed in cavities.
Judicious engineering of the quantum vacuum surrounding the matter inside the cavity can lead to significant and nonintuitive modifications of electronic states, producing a “vacuum dressed” material with novel properties. The recent advances in this field have not only broadened our view on what zero-point fields can do in condensed matter and their potential towards new applications, they have also stimulated intense discussions regarding the fundamental physics of vacuum-matter interactions.
Topics of primary interest include:
- Ultrastrong and deep-strong coupling regimes
- Breakdown of the rotating wave approximation: the vacuum Bloch-Siegert shift
- Intrinsic quantum squeezing
- Dynamic Casimir effect, Unruh radiation, and Hawking radiation
- Importance of the 𝐴2 term and gauge invariance
- The Dicke-Hepp-Lieb superradiant phase transition (or photon condensation)
- Cavity-induced modifications of the quantum Hall effect
- Cavity-enhanced, cavity-induced, and cavity-mediated superconductivity
- Cavity enhancement of electron-phonon coupling
- Cavity enhancement of ferromagnetism and ferroelectricity
- New designs of cavities with high Q-factors and small mode volumes