Pieter W. Claeys

pwclaeys@gmail.com

Synopsis

Research Group Leader at the Max Planck Institute for the Physics of Complex Systems in Dresden, Germany. Previously postdoctoral researcher at the Cavendish Laboratory, University of Cambridge, B.A.E.F. postdoctoral fellow at Boston University and an FWO Ph.D. fellow at Ghent University and the University of Amsterdam. My research focuses on the mathematical and physical aspects of quantum many-body theory.

Keywords: Strongly interacting quantum many-body systems, condensed matter physics, mathematical physics, (broken) integrability, Floquet dynamics

Experience & education

Max Planck Institute for the Physics of Complex SystemsU.K.
Research Group Leader June 2022 - Current

University of CambridgeU.K.
Research Associate November 2019 - May 2022

  • Supervisor: Prof. Austen Lamacraft

Boston University U.S.A.
Postdoctoral Researcher October 2018 – September 2019

  • Supervisor: Prof. Anatoli Polkovnikov
  • B.A.E.F. (Belgian American Education Foundation) Francqui fellowship

Ghent UniversityBelgium
Ph.D.October 2014 – September 2018

  • Supervisors: Prof. Dimitri Van Neck and Dr. Stijn De Baerdemacker
  • Ph.D. thesis: Richardson-Gaudin systems and broken integrability (defended 18 May 2018)
  • FWO Vlaanderen (Research Foundation Flanders) fellowship

University of AmsterdamThe Netherlands
One-year research stay during Ph.D.September 2016 – August 2017

  • Supervisor: Prof. Jean-Sébastien Caux
  • Research stay at the Institute of Physics with an FWO Vlaanderen (Research Foundation Flanders) ‘long stay abroad’ grant

Ghent UniversityBelgium
Master and Bachelor of science: Engineering physicsOctober 2009 – July 2014

  • Graduated with Greatest Distinction (Total grade: 936/1000)
  • Master’s thesis: Integrable quantum many-body systems: Properties and extensions of the Dicke model, and the introduction of time dependence

Skills

Teaching

  • Teaching assistant ‘Introduction to theoretical physics’ (2014-2016, 2017-2018)
  • First-year physics course at Ghent University (50-70 students)
  • Quantum Mechanics 511 (2018-2019)
  • Graduate Quantum Mechanics at Boston University

Supervision

  • (Co-)supervised five master’s theses and two Ph.D. theses

Refereeing

  • Referee for Physical Review Letters, Physical Review B, Nuclear Physics B, Physics Letters A, Journal of Physics A

Languages

  • Dutch (native), English (fluent), French (good), German (basic)

Recent talks & conferences

Biunitary circuit dynamics and emergent quantum state designs
Invited TalkIntegrable and chaotic dynamics, Pokljuka, Slovenia (8 July 2022)

Transport in noisy spin chains
Invited TalkCondensed matter seminars, MPIPKS Dresden, Germany (9 June 2022)

Dual-unitary circuit dynamics with measurements
Invited TalkQuantum Chaos and Holography, Dresden, Germany (2 June 2022)

Emergent random matrix behaviour in dual-unitary circuit dynamics
Invited TalkRandom Matrix Theory seminars, Oxford, U.K. (26 April 2022)

Thermalization and scrambling in dual-unitary circuit models
Invited TalkBudapest Integrability Events, Budapest, Hungary (10 March 2022)

Dual-unitary circuit dynamics
Invited TalkCMT Forum, Oxford, U.K. (19 January 2022)

Absence of superdiffusion in certain random spin models
Invited TalkQuantum Science and Technology seminar, Donostia International Physics Center, Spain (25 November 2021)

Thermalization and scrambling in dual-unitary circuit models
Invited TalkAmsterdam, The Netherlands (12 November 2021)

Thermalization and scrambling in dual-unitary circuit models
Invited TalkCenter for Quantum Information Theory of Matter and Spacetime,IIT Madras and IIT Tirupati, India (10 November 2021)

Absence of superdiffusion in certain random spin models
Invited TalkLeeds-Loughborough-Nottingham Non-Equilibrium Seminars, U.K. (3 November 2021)

Thermalization and scrambling in dual-unitary circuit models
Invited TalkBAQIS, Beijing, China (1 July 2021)

Floquet-engineering counterdiabatic protocols in quantum many-body systems
Invited TalkInteracting Topological Matter: Atomic, Molecular and Optical Systems, KITP, UC Santa Barbara, U.S.A. (7 June 2021)

Maximally chaotic dynamics
Invited TalkMPIPKS, Dresden, Germany (29 April 2021)

Dual-unitary circuit dynamics
Poster Virtual Scientific Party-2021, MPIPKS, Dresden, Germany (9 April 2021)

Dual-unitary circuit dynamics
Invited talkCorrelated phases and hydrodynamics in driven systems, New York, U.S.A. (26 March 2021)

Quantum eigenstates and classical Gibbs distributions
Invited talkCondensed Matter Theory Seminar, Amsterdam, Netherlands (17 December 2020)

Thermalization and scrambling in dual-unitary circuit models
Self-invited talkQuantum Chaos 2020 Seminar Series (3 December 2020)

Thermalization and scrambling in dual-unitary circuit models
PosterDCURQC, MPIPKS, Dresden, Germany (30 September - 2 October 2020)

Thermalization and scrambling in dual-unitary circuit models
Invited talkQuantum Fluids in Isolation (Virtual Seminar Series), Boston, U.S.A. (3 September 2020)

Transitionless driving in quantum many-body systems
Invited talkShortcut To Adiabayicity Conference (STA2020) (cancelled due to Covid-19), Toulouse, France (9-11 March 2020)