Gravity seminar - Enrico Speranza  Seminar

Abstract: Hydrodynamics is one of the cornerstones of physics, and one of the oldest and most powerful effective theories. In the course of decades, hydrodynamics has been observed to govern the dynamics of the most disparate systems at vastly different length scales. In general, such an effective description is constructed in accordance with very general principles such as conservation laws, which do not necessarily rely on the quantum nature of the system. In this sense, we refer to hydrodynamics as a classical theory. On the other hand, quantum field theory is the underlying microscopic theory and it is, thus, natural to ask how such a collective hydrodynamic behavior arises from the fundamental interactions, and whether there are genuine quantum effects which are manifest at the hydrodynamic level. In this talk, I will discuss the basic concepts of relativistic spin hydrodynamics, i.e., the theory of relativistic hydrodynamics when quantum spin degrees of freedom play an important role and influence the behavior of the fluid. I will also focus on some fundamental properties of chiral hydrodynamics, the hydrodynamic theory which incorporates the effects of quantum anomalies. These theories are expected to describe the behavior of fluids such as the quark-gluon plasma created in relativistic heavy-ion collisions, while they may also be relevant in the description of certain condensed-matter systems.

 

Talk slides