Emergent Gauge Theories: Bridging Quantum Matter, Quantum Information, and Fundamental Interactions

International Seminar and Workshop
01 - 19 June 2026

Emergent Gauge Theories: Bridging Quantum Matter, Quantum Information, and Fundamental Interactions (emergo) is a three-week seminar program culminating in a workshop (arrival May 31, 2026; departure June 20, 2026; workshop week June 15 – 19, 2026). The program brings together experts in condensed matter/AMO quantum simulation, quantum information science, and high-energy theory to develop shared gauge-theoretic perspectives on correlated quantum matter, lattice gauge theories, and fault-tolerant quantum computation. A core aim is cross-fertilization: using emergent/topological phases and quantum simulators to probe questions such as confinement and chiral dynamics, while leveraging gauge/topology ideas to design robust quantum codes and sharpen connections among entanglement, holography, and quantum gravity.

This will be an on-site seminar and workshop. Talks and posters will only be presented on-site.

• Emergent gauge fields in correlated quantum matter (spin liquids, fractionalization, topological order)
• Confinement vs deconfinement beyond Landau paradigm: what are sharp diagnostics in QCD/QCD-like theories when center symmetry is broken?
• Chiral gauge theories on the lattice: can condensed-matter mechanisms (e.g., symmetric mass generation) enable consistent formulations
• Quantum simulation of lattice gauge theories on programmable hardware (trapped ions, Rydberg arrays, superconducting circuits)
• Classical computation: tensor-network methods for Abelian/non-Abelian lattice gauge theories
• Gauge principles in quantum error correction: stabilizers as local constraints (surface/toric-code paradigms)
• Entanglement diagnostics from QFT/CFT: area laws, scaling at criticality, entanglement Hamiltonians/spectra
• Topological quantum computing: non-Abelian anyons, braiding, and TQFT descriptions (Chern–Simons/BF)
• Topological gauge theories in AMO platforms (e.g., chiral BF/Chern–Simons analogues in cold atoms/BEC settings)
• Gauge/gravity duality & holography for strongly coupled many-body dynamics; black-hole universality ideas
• Quantum error correction - spacetime emergence: how far can code-based viewpoints go in modeling quantum gravity?