Dag Group: Quantum many-body physics in and out of equilibrium

We are a newly established theoretical research group at Indiana University Bloomington. Our research resides at the intersection of atomic, molecular and optical (AMO) physics, condensed matter theory and quantum information science. 

In this new ArXiv preprint 2504.03842, we demonstrate a subtle competition between cavity frequency and interlayer tunneling in graphene stacks that is responsible for topological phase transitions in light-matter Hilbert space and that cannot be captured by mean-field theory in vacuum. A systematic exploration of multilayer graphene heterostructures and stacking configurations in a chiral tHz cavity reveals that linear dispersion enhances the low-energy cavity-induced topological gap.

• September 2025: 

  • Realization of a Chiral Photonic-Crystal Cavity with Broken Time-Reversal Symmetry, our collaboration work with Kono Lab at Rice University is out on ArXiv!

  • Ceren is visiting Institute for International Centre for Theoretical Physics - South American Institute for Fundamental Reseach (ICTP-SAIFR) to give a talk on "Quantum scarring in many-body quantum systems" in the workshop Quantum Many-Body Dynamics: Thermalization and its Violations. See the talk video here. 

  • Zhongling's paper on anti-scarring in spinor condensates got accepted to Physical Review A. Congrats Zhongling!

• August 2025: 

  • Ceren was conference crawling this month: three talks on three different topics in three weeks! First talk was on "Quantum simulations with neutral atoms" in University of Tokyo Institute for Solid State Physics (ISSP) workshop Physics of Open Systems: Resonance, Symmetry and Topology, where she presented the recent insights regarding the role of atom motion in quantum many-body dynamics simulated with Rydberg atom arrays and the crystalline symmetry protected topological order measured in Hubbard Quantum simulator. The second talk was on "Engineering topology in materials with chiral cavities" in Oka Group at ISSP, where she discussed the unpublished results of Kono Lab photonic crystal chiral cavity. Final talk was on "Quantum scarring in many-body quantum systems" in the International Conference on Quantum Chaos 2025 in Puebla City, Mexico. 

  • Ceren is also now teaching: grad level solid state physics where she will be lecturing on lattice structures and symmetries, quantization of lattice vibrations, electronic band theory and topology, magnetism. 

• July 2025: Genuine quantum scars in many-body spin systems, next chapter of our research program on quantum scarring has been now published in Nature Communications!

• June 2025: 

  • Ceren was chosen to be a Research Corporation for Science Advancement (RCSA) Fellow for the upcoming Quantum Matter and Information program. 

  • Ceren gave talks on "Quantum simulations with neutral atoms" in University of Tennessee's Quantum Center at Chattanooga during its first Quantum Technology Workshop, and in University of Rochester during Rochester Conference on Coherence and Quantum Science. 

  • Terahertz chiral photonic-crystal cavities for Dirac gap engineering in graphene, our collaboration work with Jun Kono Lab at Rice University has been now published in Nature Communications!

• See older news here.

Physical Address: 

Swain West 302, Department of Physics, 

Indiana University Bloomington

727 E Third St, Bloomington, IN 47405