The scope of the workshop:

The fields of ultracold atomic gases and optics and photonics are mutually entangled in many ways. The workshop aims to bring together scientists from the two communities to discuss the topics that are of great current interest in both fields.

These topics include synthetic gauge fields / synthetic magnetism for atoms and photons, physics of the Hall effect, topological phases and topological effects such as topological insulators, Weyl semimetals, and the manifestations of these phases in forms of topologically protected edge states. A flurry of papers is being published in most prestigious journals on these topics. It is our belief that both communities could benefit by having stronger links in understanding the methods from the other side, experimental difficulties, new possibilities and ideas.

The topics of mutual interest to optics and ultracold atomic gases have been flourishing in the past as well. Thus, the scope of the workshop goes beyond topological effects and synthetic gauge/magnetic fields.

The dynamics of a Bose-Einstein condensate (BEC), and the evolution of coherent light in nonlinear Kerr medium, are both described by the nonlinear Schrodinger equation (NLSE), referred to as the Gross-Pitaevskii equation in the BEC context. This analogy has opened the way for nonlinear atom optics with striking demonstrations of familiar nonlinear optics phenomena such as four wave mixing, superradiant Rayleigh scattering, matter-wave amplification, and matter-wave solitons. Solitons have had a special life and focus in both fields, from the most common bright solitons, to dark and discrete solitons. Their interaction with the uncondensed particles in BECs is related to incoherent solitons in optics. Strongly correlated systems such as one-dimensional strongly interacting 1D Bose gases have been realized with atoms, and there is great interest for producing them with photons, for example by employing coupled cavities. The list is much longer than the “conference scope text” should be.

The workshop topics are of natural interest and naturally occurring in condensed matter physics. For example, the gauge fields in graphene are extensively used to describe strained and stretched graphene, which has in fact been used in optical graphene as well. The condensed matter physicists are most welcomed to join the discussion.

This workshop is intended to bring together most distinguished scientists from the two communities, and also excellent scientists interested in the topics.