Events

Past Event

Theory Seminar: "The Quantum Mechanical Perfect Fluid" with Dr. Riccardo Rattazzi (EPFL, Lausanne)

January 27, 2025
2:10 PM - 3:00 PM
Event time is displayed in your time zone.
Theory Center (Pupin 8th Floor)

Research Overview: https://www.epfl.ch/labs/lptp/rattazzi/

"The Quantum Mechanical Perfect Fluid"

The physics of the 19th century was largely shaped by the development of two  field theories, electro-dynamics and fluid-dynamics. The fate of the two, with  the advent of quantum mechanics and relativity  in the following century, has been quite different. The former served the basis for quantum gauge theories and fundamental interaction  while  the latter remained mostly within the realm of classical physics. While relativity offers an obvious reason for that as concerns fundamental interactions, the reason for the different fate of fluid-dynamics in the quantum world is less evident. In this talk I will report on the exploration of the perfect fluid through the lens of the modern effective field theory methodology. I will illustrate the different, and subtly inequivalent,  realizations of fluid mechanics in classical field theory and then discuss the quantum treatment with its rather unusual implications.