Talks

The sign problem is a widespread numerical hurdle preventing us from simulating the equilibrium behaviour of many interesting models, most notably the Hubbard model. Research aimed at solving the sign problem, via various clever manipulations, has been thriving for a long time with various recent exciting results. The complementary question, of whether some phases of matter forbid the existence of any sign-free microscopic model, has received attention only recently. In this talk, I’ll review recent progress and discuss a novel and quite general criteria we obtained for when a topological quantum field theory has no sign-free microscopic model. I’ll also point out relations to sign problems in frustrated magnets and to the notion of quantum supremacy.

The searches for solving the greatest mysteries of our Universe require ultra-sensitive detectors and an extreme control of the environment and the background in order to detect a rare signal. Over the last decades, technologies have reached such unprecedented sensitivity levels that never-before-seen background signals must be considered. In this talk I will give an overview of the requirements for low background detection and what are the current R&D effortsfor developing new cutting-edge technologies in order to address the common challenges of experiments and for pushing the limits of detector performance.