This paper reviews recent experimental and theoretical progress concerning many-body phenomena in dilute, ultracold gases. It focuses on effects beyond standard weak-coupling descriptions, such as the Mott-Hubbard transition in optical lattices, strongly interacting gases in one and two dimensions, or lowest-Landau-level physics in quasi-two-dimensional gases in fast rotation. Strong correlations in fermionic gases are discussed in optical lattices or near-Feshbach resonances in the BCS-BEC crossover.

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Many-Body Physics with Ultracold Gases

Couplings and changes of variables.- Three examples of coupling techniques.- The founding fathers of optimal transport.- Qualitative description of optimal transport.- Basic properties.- Cyclical monotonicity and Kantorovich duality.- The Wasserstein distances.- Displacement interpolation.- The Monge-Mather shortening principle.- Solution of the Monge problem I: global approach.- Solution of the Monge problem II: Local approach.- The Jacobian equation.- Smoothness.- Qualitative picture.- Optimal transport and Riemannian geometry.- Ricci curvature.- Otto calculus.- Displacement convexity I.- Displacement convexity II.- Volume control.- Density control and local regularity.- Infinitesimal displacement convexity.- Isoperimetric-type inequalities.- Concentration inequalities.- Gradient flows I.- Gradient flows II: Qualitative properties.- Gradient flows III: Functional inequalities.- Synthetic treatment of Ricci curvature.- Analytic and synthetic points of view.- Convergence of metric-measure spaces.- Stability of optimal transport.- Weak Ricci curvature bounds I: Definition and Stability.- Weak Ricci curvature bounds II: Geometric and analytic properties.

Optimal Transport: Old and New

We explore in this chapter questions of existence and uniqueness for solutions to stochastic differential equations and offer a study of their properties. This endeavor is really a study of diffusion processes. Loosely speaking, the term diffusion is attributed to a Markov process which has continuous sample paths and can be characterized in terms of its infinitesimal generator.

Stochastic Differential Equations

The paper proposes Metropolis adjusted Langevin and Hamiltonian Monte Carlo sampling methods defined on the Riemann manifold to resolve the shortcomings of existing Monte Carlo algorithms when sampling from target densities that may be high dimensional and exhibit strong correlations. The methods provide fully automated adaptation mechanisms that circumvent the costly pilot runs that are required to tune proposal densities for Metropolis-Hastings or indeed Hamiltonian Monte Carlo and Metropolis adjusted Langevin algorithms. This allows for highly efficient sampling even in very high dimensions where different scalings may be required for the transient and stationary phases of the Markov chain. The methodology proposed exploits the Riemann geometry of the parameter space of statistical models and thus automatically adapts to the local structure when simulating paths across this manifold, providing highly efficient convergence and exploration of the target density. The performance of these Riemann manifold Monte Carlo methods is rigorously assessed by performing inference on logistic regression models, log-Gaussian Cox point processes, stochastic volatility models and Bayesian estimation of dynamic systems described by non-linear differential equations. Substantial improvements in the time-normalized effective sample size are reported when compared with alternative sampling approaches. MATLAB code that is available from http://www.ucl.ac.uk/statistics/research/rmhmc allows replication of all the results reported.

Riemann manifold Langevin and Hamiltonian Monte Carlo methods

In this article, we review developments in the theory of rapidly rotating degenerate atomic gases. The main focus is on the equilibrium properties of a single-component atomic Bose gas, which (at least at rest) forms a Bose–Einstein condensate. Rotation leads to the formation of quantized vortices which order into a vortex array, in close analogy with the behaviour of superfluid helium. Under conditions of rapid rotation, when the vortex density becomes large, atomic Bose gases offer the possibility to explore the physics of quantized vortices in novel parameter regimes. First, there is an interesting regime in which the vortices become sufficiently dense that their cores, as set by the healing length, start to overlap. In this regime, the theoretical description simplifies, allowing a reduction to single-particle states in the lowest Landau level. Second, one can envisage entering a regime of very high vortex density, when the number of vortices becomes comparable to the number of particles in the gas. I...

Rapidly rotating atomic gases

Kohn's Proof of the Hypoellipticity of the Hormander Operators.- Compactness Criteria for the Resolvent of Schrodinger Operators.- Global Pseudo-differential Calculus.- Analysis of some Fokker-Planck Operator.- Return to Equillibrium for the Fokker-Planck Operator.- Hypoellipticity and Nilpotent Groups.- Maximal Hypoellipticity for Polynomial of Vector Fields and Spectral Byproducts.- On Fokker-Planck Operators and Nilpotent Techniques.- Maximal Microhypoellipticity for Systems and Applications to Witten Laplacians.- Spectral Properties of the Witten-Laplacians in Connection with Poincare Inequalities for Laplace Integrals.- Semi-classical Analysis for the Schrodinger Operator: Harmonic Approximation.- Decay of Eigenfunctions and Application to the Splitting.- Semi-classical Analysis and Witten Laplacians: Morse Inequalities.- Semi-classical Analysis and Witten Laplacians: Tunneling Effects.- Accurate Asymptotics for the Exponentially Small Eigenvalues of the Witten Laplacian.- Application to the Fokker-Planck Equation.- Epilogue.- Index.

Hypoelliptic Estimates and Spectral Theory for Fokker-Planck Operators and Witten Laplacians

We consider the Fokker-Planck equation with a confining or anti-confining potential which behaves at infinity like a possibly high-degree homogeneous function. Hypoellipticity techniques provide the well-posedness of the weak Cauchy problem in both cases as well as instantaneous smoothing and exponential trend to equilibrium. Lower and upper bounds for the rate of convergence to equilibrium are obtained in terms of the lowest positive eigenvalue of the corresponding Witten Laplacian, with detailed applications.

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Isotropic Hypoellipticity and Trend to Equilibrium for the Fokker-Planck Equation with a High-Degree Potential

We consider non-reversible perturbations of reversible diffusions that do not alter the invariant distribution and we ask whether there exists an optimal perturbation such that the rate of convergence to equilibrium is maximized. We solve this problem for the case of linear drift by proving the existence of such optimal perturbations and by providing an easily implementable algorithm for constructing them. We discuss in particular the role of the prefactor in the exponential convergence estimate. Our rigorous results are illustrated by numerical experiments.

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Optimal Non-reversible Linear Drift for the Convergence to Equilibrium of a Diffusion

This article proposes the construction of Wigner measures in the infinite dimensional bosonic quantum field theory, with applications to the derivation of the mean field dynamics. Once these asymptotic objects are well defined, it is shown how they can be used to make connections between different kinds of results or to prove new ones.

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Francis Nier

Papers

Hypoelliptic Estimates and Spectral Theory for Fokker-Planck Operators and Witten Laplacians

Isotropic Hypoellipticity and Trend to Equilibrium for the Fokker-Planck Equation with a High-Degree Potential

Optimal Non-reversible Linear Drift for the Convergence to Equilibrium of a Diffusion

Mean Field Limit for Bosons and Infinite Dimensional Phase-Space Analysis

Lowest Landau level functional and Bargmann spaces for Bose-Einstein condensates