Zoom: In the Meeting Invite
In-Person: West Hall 411

Abstract:
Recent progress in the control of complex quantum systems has made it possible to revisit
long-standing questions, realize thought experiments once deemed inaccessible, and explore
new terrain. Our contribution to this progress has been the development of an experimental
platform that creates ultracold quantum fluids in spatiotemporally programmable optical
potentials, engineered with advanced electro-optic devices.
In this talk, I will share our explorations into the physics of fermions confined in ‘boxes of
light’, a deceptively simple stage that gives rise to remarkably rich behavior [1]. Highlights
include few-body recombination in multicomponent fermions [2,3], the first observation of
the quantum Joule–Thomson effect for fermions [4], strong-drive spectroscopy of Fermi-
polaron quasiparticles [5], the first direct observation of the Lindhard response [6], the
observation of the emergence and breakdown of Fermi’s Golden Rule in a strongly
interacting system [7], and the unveiling of a new correspondence between short-time and
long-time behavior in quantum dynamics [8]. Together, these studies span a wide range of
topics—thermodynamics, few-body physics, quantum impurity problems, and
hydrodynamics—showcasing both long-predicted effects finally brought into view and
surprising new phenomena.
[1] N. Navon, R.P. Smith, Z. Hadzibabic, Nature Phys. 17, 1334 (2021)
[2] Y. Ji et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. 129, 203402 (2022)
[3] G.L. Schumacher et al., Nature Commun. 17, 174 (2026)
[4] Y. Ji et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. 132, 153402 (2024)
[5] F.J. Vivanco, S. Huang, A. Schuckert et al., Nature Phys. 21, 564 (2025)
[6] S. Huang, Y. Ji et al., Phys. Rev. X 15, 011074 (2025)
[7] J. Chen et al., Nature Phys. 22, 1453 (2026)
[8] S. Huang, X. Li et al., arXiv:2605.06666 (2026)

Bio
Nir Navon is an Associate Professor of Physics at Yale University. He received his Ph.D. in 2011 from the École Normale Supérieure in Paris (France), where he worked with Christophe Salomon and Frédéric Chevy on the thermodynamics of ultracold Bose and Fermi gases. Afterwards, he worked on trapped-ion quantum information in the group of Roee Ozeri at the Weizmann Institute of Science (Israel). From 2013 to 2018, he was a Junior Research Fellow at Trinity College, Cambridge (UK), working with Zoran Hadzibabic on homogeneous Bose gases in optical box traps. He joined the Yale faculty in 2017.

His group has built an apparatus that produces strongly interacting Fermi gases in programmable potentials. This apparatus has made it possible to experimentally address quantum many-body problems where theory offers few, if any, reliable answers. The group's recent work includes the observation of the as-yet unexplained recombination dynamics of three-component fermions, the emergence of sound in a Fermi fluid with tunable interactions, the strongly driven Fermi polaron, the first observation of the quantum Joule-Thomson effect for fermions, and the emergence and breakdown of Fermi's Golden Rule in a many-body system. His awards and honors include a Packard Fellowship (2017), a Sloan Research Fellowship (2019), an NSF CAREER Award (2020), the New Horizons Lectureship in Physics at the Solvay Institutes (2023), Outstanding Referee of the APS (2023), and a Scialog Fellowship of the RCSA (2025).