Emergence of Coherence in Nonequilibrium and Structured Environments
The eco-noise2026 workshop, “Emergence of Coherence in Nonequilibrium and Structured Environments,” will take place at the Ettore Majorana Foundation and Centre for Scientific Culture in Erice, Italy, from 23 to 28 July 2026.
For the abstract and the list of invited speakers, please check out the details below and our website.
Applications are now open for contributed talks, posters, and participants. Please check out our website for registration and submission information.
Registration deadline: 15 May 2026
For further questions regarding the workshop, please contact the organisers at eco.noise2026@gmail.com.
Organizers
Eugene Demler (ETH), Andrea Cavalleri (MPSD), Angel Rubio (MPSD), Marios Michael (MPI-PKS), Duilio De Santis (ETH), Hope Bretscher (MPSD)
Abstract
Driving quantum many-body systems with an external source has been explored as a route to control the collective properties of quantum matter. Recently, studies of cavity–matter hybrids have suggested that dynamical control need not be coherent: quantum or thermal noise from light inside an optical cavity can be used to passively control phases of matter. In this workshop, we aim to merge these two communities that sit at different limits along the spectrum of dynamical control.
The central question we seek to address is: how can nonequilibrium and engineered environments, ranging from laser driving to cavity-mediated noise, be leveraged to enhance coherence in many-body quantum systems? In particular, we are interested in exploring the boundaries of how fragile but useful phases of matter, such as superconductivity, magnetism, and topological order, can emerge at high temperatures beyond their natural equilibrium limits.
The goal of the workshop is to bring together leading experimentalists and theorists working at the interface of ultrafast pump–probe experiments, nonequilibrium quantum many-body physics, Floquet engineering, quantum electrodynamics, and ultracold-atom physics. By fostering dialogue across these fields, the workshop aims to advance the state of the art in engineering coherence at high temperatures and to develop protocols to understand and characterize the observed phenomena and the notion of enhanced coherence itself.
Confirmed invited speakers
Anatoli Polkovnikov, Andrea Alù, Andrea Caviglia, Ankit Disa, Atac Imamoglu, Benjamin Lev, Daniele Nicoletti, Dmytro Afanasiev, Eric Lutz, Eryin Wang, Evgenii Narimanov, Francesco Piazza, Gregor Jotzu, Gil Rafael, Jean-Philippe Brantut, Jérôme Faist, Marco Polini, Matteo Mitrano, Michele Buzzi, Mohammad Hafezi, Richard Averitt, Rosario Fazio, Ryo Shimano, Subir Sachdev, Tatiana Webb, Thierry Giamarchi, Vinod Menon