Research Interests

The collective behaviour of many degrees of freedom bears a plethora of surprising phenomena in both the classical and the quantum realm. In thermal equilibrium it is understood that the behaviour of many-particle systems can be explained by the principles of statistical mechanics. Far from thermal equilibrium, however, the only known principle determining the dynamics a priori are the fundamental laws of motion involving every single degree of freedom. My research interests are directed at understanding the collective dynamics of quantum many-body systems out of equilibrium.

Critical behavior far from equilibrium

Critical phenomena and phase transitions are among the most intriguing subjects in many-body physics. In my research I investigate critical behavior that occurs in situations far from equilibrium. In particular, I am interested in so-called dynamical quantum phase transitions and signatures of topological transitions away from equilibrium.

Quantum dynamics from classical networks

The efficient representation of quantum many-body states with classical resources is a key challenge in quantum many-body theory. In my work I explore the possibility to encode the quantum wave function with networks of classical degrees of freedom, which can be sampled efficiently using Monte Carlo techniques.

Irreversibility, the butterfly effect, and scrambling

While for classical systems irreversibility is understood to be a consequence of the butterfly effect that occurs due to the complexity of many-body systems, understanding many-body chaos is a subject of ongoing research. In my work I investigate possible probes of a quantum butterfly effect with a particular focus on the question of irreversibility.