Theoretical Physics Seminar

Theoretical Physics Seminar

Flows on quantum state space - Raychaudhuri equation in quantum matter

Speaker: Suraj Hegde (IISER Trivandrum)

तिथि और समय
कार्यक्रम का स्थान
SCM Lecture hall

अमूर्त

The geometry of quantum states has drawn increasing attention in condensed matter physics, particularly in nonlinear electronic and optical responses and in adiabatic state-preparation protocols. The state space of quantum mechanics is naturally endowed with a Riemannian metric, a symplectic structure, and a complex structure, which together underlie familiar objects such as the quantum geometric tensor — whose real and imaginary parts are the quantum metric and the Berry curvature. Rather than treating these as isolated quantities that surface in individual calculations, we develop a unified geometric treatment of the dynamics of an entire congruence of flows on the curved manifold of states, described through projectors. This is precisely the setting of the Raychaudhuri equation, which characterises the evolution of geodesic congruences in curved spacetime. We identify unavoidable quantum-mechanical consequences of such flows, including caustics and tidal anisotropies. Building on this, we show that Boltzmann transport and adiabatic dynamics generate flows embedded in the full state space, with the associated responses, such as berry curvature dipole, being intricately linked to the expansion, shear, and vorticity of the congruence.

Poster
Seminar Notice