Condensed Matter Physics in the Alps: Geometric Frustration, Topology, Flat Bands, and Correlation in Kagome and Van der Waals Systems

Session

Friday Morning Session, Chair S. Gerber

9 Jan 2026, 08:30

Saas Fee

56. Controling solid state phases through vacuum field

Jerome Faist (ETH Zurich)

09/01/2026, 08:30

Kagome experimental

Invited talk (by invitation only)

While the effect of vacuum fields on atomic system (such as through the Lamb shift) is well known, there is a recent interest in controlling the many-body phases of solid-state systems using vacuum fluctuations strongly coupled to such a system inside a microcavity. In such a system, the strength of the electric field caused by the vacuum fluctuations, to which the strength of the...

53. Quantum Printing and Rectification

Alexander Balatsky (Nordita)

09/01/2026, 09:05

Theory

Invited talk (by invitation only)

I introduce the concept of quantum printing [1]-- the imprinting of quantum states from photons and phonons onto quantum matter. The discussion is focusing on charged fluids (metals, superconductors, Hall fluids) and neutral systems (magnets, excitons). I demonstrate how structured light can generate topological excitations, including vortices in superconductors and skyrmions in magnets. I...

47. Phantom quasiparticle dynamics in real time at a metastable Wigner crystal vertex.

Dragan Mihailovic (Jozef Stefan Institute)

09/01/2026, 09:40

van der Waals experimental

Invited talk (by invitation only)

The self-assembly of matter in the aftermath of a phase transition results in emergent states that are the origin of everything around us. Here we investigate the dynamics of emergent mesoscopic topologically non-trivial domain states formed after an polaronic Wigner crystal is quenched by an external perturbation using a fast STM. In particular, we study the detailed single-electron (polaron)...