Día: 2026/09/23
Hora: 11:40
Lugar: 1A.1

Title: Cavity Materials Engineering: A New Frontier for Controlling Matter with Vacuum Fluctuations

Angel Rubio
Max Planck Institute for the Structure and Dynamics of Matter, Luruper Chaussee 149, 22761 Hamburg, Germany Initiative for Computational Catalysis (ICC) and Center for Computational Quantum Physics (CCQ)Flatiron Institute, Simons Foundation, 10010 NY, USA 

Abstract:
Cavity materials engineering offers a new way to control matter by modifying its quantum electromagnetic environment. Instead of driving a material with intense laser fields, optical cavities can reshape the vacuum fluctuations surrounding it and thereby alter its electronic structure and collective properties, potentially without the heating associated with conventional nonequilibrium approaches. In this talk, I will discuss how first-principles quantum-electrodynamical methods can be used to predict these effects in realistic materials, with examples from two-dimensional systems and graphene, where cavity fields can modify band structures, interactions and structural properties. These results suggest that vacuum fluctuations themselves can become a new control parameter for designing quantum materials and tuning phenomena such as ferroelectricity, topology and superconductivity.