Frontiers and Quantum Mesoscopic Thermodynamics (FQMT) Conferences

Program Summary of FQMT'15

The conference Frontiers of Quantum and Mesoscopic Thermodynamics (FQMT’15) was held in Prague, Czech Republic at the Pyramida Hotel from July 27 to August 1, 2015.

FQMT’15 was a follow-up to the four previous, successful Prague conferences “Frontiers of Quantum and Mesoscopic Thermodynamics 2004” (FQMT’04), FQMT’08, FQMT’11, and FQMT’13. As in all previous FQMT conferences, the aim of FQMT’15 was to create a bridge between the fields of modern condensed matter physics, quantum optics, statistical physics and the quickly developing field of foundations of quantum physics.

In general, the conference addressed quantum physics and non-equilibrium quantum statistical physics. The systems considered were mostly of nanoscale size. The task of the conference was to contribute to the uncovering of possible phenomenological laws governing the behaviour of nanoscale systems, providing a better understanding and insight into the problems and interpretations of quantum physics based upon the methods of condensed matter physics, statistical physics and quantum optics.

The conference was attended by 232 physicists from 40 countries. A total of 154 talks were delivered and 98 poster contributions were presented. The conference was organized so as to provide plenary invited sessions every morning and also on Monday, Friday and Saturday afternoon. In the rest of the regular conference program, three parallel sessions were held. The contributed papers were discussed during the late afternoon/evening poster session held in the Pyramida Hotel on Thursday.

The organizers created a program which covered homogeneously the following topics:

In this regard, the organizers strove to reach “equilibrium” between theoretically and experimentally orientated talks to motivate the discussion between experimentalists and theorists as much as possible.

The following leading experts accepted the invitation of the Scientific Committee, delivered their lectures and discussed lively hot problems of statistical and condensed matter physics during the whole conference:

Yoram Alhassid, Frithjof Anders, Dragos-Victor Anghel, Joachim Ankerhold, Mauro Antezza, Andrew Armour, Markus Arndt, Liliana Arrachea, Alexia Auffeves, Roger Balian, Mikhail Baranov, Dietrich Belitz, Wolfgang Belzig, Ofer Biham, Yaroslav M. Blanter, Rainer Blatt, Dirk Bouwmeester, Jean-Philippe Brantut, Christoph Bruder, Michel Brune, Amir Caldeira, Michele Campisi, Howard Carmichael, Sam Carr, Ana María Cetto, Marc Cheneau, Frédéric Chevy, Doron Cohen, Juan Carlos Cuevas, Bryan Dalton, Luiz Davidovich, Alessandro De Martino, Ehtibar Dzhafarov, Jens Eisert, Daniel Esteve, Giuseppe Falci, Meydi Ferrier, David Ferry, Radim Filip, Boris Fine, James Freericks, Michael Galperin, Nicolas Gisin, Nathan Goldman, Hermann Grabert, Marco Gramegna, Michael Guidry, Shmuel Gurvitz, Michael Hall, Francois Hammer, Peter Hänggi, Philipp Haslinger, Rudolf Hilfer, Andrea Hofmann, Pavel Holba, Gerard ’t Hooft, Nader Inan, Gregoire Ithier, Gregg Jaeger, Christopher Jarzynski, David Jennings, Andrew Jordan, Vyacheslavs Kashcheyevs, Michael Kastner, Nadav Katz, Peter Keefe, Ivan Khaymovich, Andrei Khrennikov, Nikolai Kiesel, Ted Kirkpatrick, Irena Knezevic, Mario Krenn, Norbert Kroo, Pavel Kroupa, Gershon Kurizki, Paul Kwiat, Jonathan Lavoie, Ulf Leonhardt, Igor Lerner, Alfredo Levy Yeyati, Yeong-Cherng Liang, Reinhard Lipowsky, Marcelo Lozada-Cassou, Jerzy Łuczka, Angus MacKinnon, Kenji Maeda, Etienne Maréchal, Jiří Mareš, Michael Marthaler, Thierry Martin, Yigal Meir, Gerard Milburn, Mordehai Milgrom, Kimball Milton, Mazyar Mirrahimi, Gilles Montambaux, Mikko Möttönen, Nir Navon, Yuli Nazarov, Theo Nieuwenhuizen, Elisabetta Paladino, Giorgio Parisi, Hyunggyu Park, Vittorio Peano, Uri Peskin, Michael Pollak, Saar Rahav, Jakob Reichel, Linda Reichl, Alex Retzker, Carsten Robens, Oriol Romero-Isart, Serge Rosenblum, Erhan Saglamyurek, Rafael Sánchez, Lea Santos, Wolfgang Schleich, Thomas Schmidt, Peter Schmitteckert, Christian Schönenberger, Ralf Schuetzhold, Lawrence S. Schulman, Marlan Scully, Tamar Seideman, Udo Seifert, Daniel Sheehan, Efrat Shimshoni, Georgy Shlyapnikov, Pascal Simon, Ilya Sinayskiy, Fernando Sols, Václav Špička, Gianluca Stefanucci, Ady Stern, Jürgen Stockburger, Fabio Taddei, Oren Tal, Michael Thorwart, Michael Thoss, Jason Twamley, Alexander Unzicker, Yasuhiro Utsumi, Joan Vaccaro, Wilfred van der Wiel, Maxim Vavilov, David Vitali, Thomas Vojta, Jan von Delft, Ulrich Weiss, Andrew White, Andrei Zaikin, and Vladimir Zelevinsky.

Let us especially mention, that the FQMT’15 conference participants listened to the last talk of Pavel Holba, an exceptional Czech physical chemist. He passed away on 3 June, 2016.

Of the special events connected to the conference, we notably mention: the traditional FQMT conference reception in the Garden of the Wallenstein Palace on Monday; the evening lecture by Marlan Scully in the St. Simon and Juda Church, followed by a concert of classical music on Tuesday; the evening lecture by Gerard ’t Hooft followed by a classical concert in the Dvořák‘s Hall of the Rudolfinum on Wednesday; two inspiring special lectures given by Francois Hammer and Mordehai Milgrom, followed by a concert of classical music in the St. Vitus Cathedral on Thursday; and the conference dinner on Friday evening in Břevnov’s Monastery, during which participants could also listen to a concert of classical music in the St. Margaret Church.

During these concerts we listened two world premieres of pieces of music which were composed specially for the FQMT’15 conference: the first piece “Fanfares of light” for three trumpets and organ was composed by Josef Kšica, the second one “Waltz from an Unknown Country” for violin was written by American composer Paul Alan Levi. Not only J. Kšica, who is from Prague, but also P. A. Levi, who came to Prague from the USA on the occasion of the FQMT’15, witnessed the world premieres of their works.

There were several exceptionally notable moments related to these events: the presentation of the special medal of the Senate of the Czech Republic to Marlan Scully by Vice President of the Senate, Mr. Ivo Bárek in the St. Simon and Juda Church, before his public lecture, the presentation of the special medal of the Senate of the Czech Republic to Gerard ’t Hooft by the Vice President of the Senate, Mrs. Miluše Horská in the Rudolfinum before his public lecture and the welcome address of the Archbishop of Prague, Dominik Cardinal Duka, in the Saint Vitus Cathedral of the Prague Castle before the concert of classical music. At the beginning of the conference dinner in the Břevnov Monastery, the participants were welcomed by brother Aleš Zdeněk Vandrovec, the vice prior of the Monastery. We also celebrated Theo Nieuwenhuizen’s 60th birthday during the Welcome party in the Wallenstein Palace Garden. The conference was closed on Saturday afternoon by a short concert performed by Yuval Waldman (violin), Valeria Sholokhova (cello), and Tomáš Víšek (piano).

In summary, we experienced a conference at a very high scientific level, all the while in a very warm atmosphere enhanced by the many artistic riches of Prague. It was broadly supported, on the one hand, by Czech institutions and, on the other hand, by the participants, who graciously used their means for this aim. The event proved to be very valuable for the scientific climate in the Czech Republic, and the organizers express their gratitude for the support extended by leading Czech institutions, which certainly contributed to the high level and good atmosphere of the conference.

Theo M. Nieuwenhuizen, Peter D. Keefe and Václav Špička