Integrated Calendar

Recent radio and X-ray observations of galaxy clusters reveal new insights into the dynamical and nonthermal processes in the intracluster medium (ICM). Tangential discontinuities (also known as cold fronts) are directly seen in high resolution X-ray maps. They reveal bulk spiral flows in the cluster core, which magnetize the plasma, give rise to radio minihalos, and may solve the cooling problem. Merger shocks, now confirmed in a handful of clusters, magnetize the plasma and give rise to radio halos and relics. I will argue that these radio sources have a hadronic origin, and show how one can disentangle the distributions of cosmic rays and magnetic fields.

Fluctuation theorems are some of the very few identities that we have in out of equilibrium systems. They are very general, perhaps too much so: it is often not clear what the associated experimental tests are meant to decide.

Recent experiments with ultra-cold atomic gases and trapped ions as well as solid-state devices
such as superconducting circuits designed to manipulate q-bits, are posing a new challenge for theory.
As in traditional atomic physics these systems are often prepared far from equilibrium,
or continuously driven by electromagnetic fields. At the same time they retain a many-body character and
intricate quantum correlations, which define a new class of quantum matter.
I will first review recent experimental advances in this field and then address a theoretical question:
Can the complexity of quantum dynamics in these systems give rise to robust universal phenomena
in spite of the non-equilibrium conditions?