Sorting by Resetting

• Bart Cleuren (UHasselt)

A novel paradigm for sorting is introduced, based upon resetting. Using simple examples, we demonstrate that sorting is achieved by resetting the velocity component(s) or the orientation of the particles, rather than their positions. The objects to be sorted are microparticles, modeled as suspended and spatially extended Brownian particles. This sorting-by-resetting scheme illustrates that stochastic resetting can create non-equilibrium conditions which enable tasks forbidden at thermodynamic equilibrium.

Localisation effects in many-body physics

• Wojciech De Roeck (KU Leuven)

Localisation is a phenomenon in Hamiltonian mechanics due to absence of effective resonances. I will discuss several examples, mostly in a many-body context. Most prominently: anomalous spreading of wave packets in non-linear oscilator systems, and absence of thermalisation and transport in interacting quantum chains.

Developments in lower-dimensional quantum gravity

• Thomas Mertens (Ghent University)

Energy, how low can it go?

• Andrew Rolph (VUB)

Energy plays a ubiquitous role in physics. In GR, energy conditions forbid exotic spacetimes such as traversable wormholes, and play a central role in singularity theorems and black hole thermodynamics. Yet all quantum field theories violate all pointwise energy conditions: states with arbitrarily negative local energy density always exist. In this talk, I will discuss what survives of energy inequalities once matter is quantised. I will start by reviewing the classical energy conditions and their role in gravity. I will then introduce several quantum energy inequalities—including the averaged null energy condition, the quantum null energy condition, and smeared null energy bounds—which place nontrivial constraints on negative energy despite the failure of classical energy conditions. Finally, I will discuss how these quantum energy inequalities can be used to recover gravitational results that were previously derived from classical pointwise energy conditions, focusing on modern quantum singularity theorems. Along the way, I will describe recent progress on higher-dimensional bounds on smeared null energy and their connections to causality, entropy, and quantum information.

Physics-Inspired Modeling of Socio-Economic Systems

• Jan Ryckebusch (Ghent University)