Mathematics of quantum systems: new research project at TUM
On January 1, 2023, the Collaborative Research Centre „Mathematics of Many-Body Quantum Systems and Their Collective Phenomena” (SFB TRR352) began its first funding period. The project aims to further develop mathematical techniques, which in turn help to understand physical phenomena in correlated quantum systems.
The Collaborative Research Center is a transregional cooperation between scientists of the Ludwig-Maximilian-University Munich (LMU), the Technical University of Munich (TUM) and the University of Tübingen. In their meeting at the end of November 2022, the German Research Council (DFG) granted funding for the project to the sum of 1.7 million Euros for the next four years. The research center is composed of 17 subprojects, each concerned with a variety of aspects surrounding the central theme of many-bodied quantum systems. The leading university in the first funding period is the LMU, where the head coordinator is Prof. Christian Heinzl.
At the TUM, Prof Simone Warzel is the head coordinator of the project. Further professors of the TUM School of Computation, Information and Technology who are involved as principal investigators are: Robert König, Caroline Lasser, Christian Mendl, Herbert Spohn and Michael Wolf, as well as Dr. Cambyse Rouze. Amongst others, the generous funding enables the employment of 21 doctorate and postdoctoral students, whose research also focuses on the main themes of the research center. In this way, young scientists are given a unique opportunity to develop their own research skills, whilst this specialist research field of mathematics on the cutting edge to physics and computational science is also further promoted.
The main interest of the SFB TRR 352 „Mathematics of Many-Body Quantum Systems and Their Collective Phenomena” is the mathematical analysis of models, with particular focus on the physics of condensed matter. These models describe the collective behavior of a large number of interactive components, such as particles or spins. Their behavior leads to manifold, macroscopically observable phenomena. While the mathematical equations that make up the microscopic quantum models are mostly well understood, the task of extracting useful information from them and linking them to collective phenomena at a meso- or macroscopic level still pushes the limits of current mathematical technology.
The Collaborative Research Center will work on some of the challenging mathematical questions associated with such many body quantum systems.
The SFB TRR352 „Mathematics of Many Body Quantum Systems and Their Collective Phenomena” is one of three new Collaborative Research Centers with significant involvement of the TUM.