Rationale and Scope:

In quantum materials, quantum fluctuations reduce the tendency towards conventional orders that fall within the classification of spontaneous symmetry breaking. They may instead drive more exotic orders that are beyond the Landau framework, such as quantum spin liquids and quantum Hall states. They can also give rise to the regime of quantum criticality and, in gapless settings, to strange metallicity. There is increasing recognition that such hidden-order systems are highly entangled and, importantly, recent developments have allowed for the detection of quantum entanglement in such many-body settings. The interplay between highly fluctuating quantum materials and quantum information has the potential to bring about new advancements in both fields.

This workshop, in part in celebration of UNESCO’s 2025 International Year of Quantum Science and Technology, will survey the recent progress and future prospects for research in this emerging cross-cutting field. It will bring together experts and early-career researchers from communities with varied perspectives and involving different platforms, which include:

Entanglement witnesses
Quantum spin liquids
Strange metals
Quantum Hall systems
Quantum emulators.

The workshop, organized by Rice University’s Extreme Quantum Materials Alliance (eQMA) in collaboration with the Smalley-Curl Institute (SCI), will bring together a diverse pool of theoretical and experimental experts on these topics. Specific topics to be discussed during the workshop include:

- The extent to which quantum information tools can advance the understanding of quantum materials with exotic orders.

- The prospect of quantum materials in the highly fluctuating regime to realize new capacities for quantum technologies.

The total number of invited speakers will be about 20.

Registration Fee:

The registration fee is $50 for Rice University attendees and $200 for non-Rice attendees.

The registration fee is waived for the invited speakers and eQMA/RCQM/SCI faculty. We will send the code by email.

The workshop expects to have a (limited) number of junior fellowships to support non-Rice early-career participants.

Dates: October 6-October 8, 2025

Location: Rice University, Ralph S. O’Connor Building for Engineering and Science – Conference Room 510 (Fifth Floor)

Invited Speakers:

Gabriel Aeppli (ETH Zürich, Switzerland)

Waseem Bakr (Princeton U.)

Haim Beidenkopf (Weizmann, Israel)

Vir Bulchandani (Rice U.)

Eugene Demler (ETH Zürich, Switzerland)

Yuan Fang (Rice U.)

Michael Foss-Feig (Quantinuum)

Fereshte Ghahari (George Mason U.)

Hart Goldman (U. Minnesota)

Sarang Gopalakrishnan (Princeton U.)

Laura H. Greene (Florida State U.)

Yucheng Guo (Rice U.)

Zhurun (Judy) Ji (MIT)

Sophie Li (Harvard U.)

Matteo Mitrano (Harvard U.)

Kimberly Modic (ISTA, Austria)

Andrew Potter (UBC, Canada/Quantinuum)

Ananda Roy (Rutgers U.)

Anders Sandvik (Boston U.)

Allen Scheie (LANL)

Yao Wang (Emory U.)

Justin Wilson (LSU)

Yaofeng Xie (Rice U.)

Matthew Yankowitz (UW Seattle)

Shuolong Yang (U. Chicago)

Format:

The workshop will last for nearly three days, incorporating invited speaker slots as well as two poster sessions to engage junior participants. We expect to select several contributed talks from contributed abstracts. The scientific program will start in the morning on Monday, October 6, and conclude by early afternoon on Wednesday, October 8.

Organizers:

Pengcheng Dai (Rice University)

Matt Foster (Rice University)

Guido Pagano (Rice University)

Qimiao Si (Rice University)

Yonglong Xie (Rice University)

Ming Yi (Rice University)

For questions on the scientific program, please contact one of the organizers.

There is increasing recognition that such hidden-order systems are highly entangled and, importantly, recent developments have allowed for the detection of quantum entanglement in such many-body settings.

For accommodation and other logistics questions, please contact our team: eqma@rice.edu.

University Event Page: https://eqma.rice.edu/fall-2025-eqma-workshop

Sample Abstract:

If you are a speaker or poster presenter, please include an abstract when registering. If interested in contributing, all participants are encouraged to submit titles and abstracts:

First-Name Last-Name, Other authors

Department of Xyz, Abc University, City, State, Country

The title of my presentation

My brief abstract. The entire file, including the author(s), their affiliation(s), the presentation title, abstract, and references, based on one of my recent publications [1] and another recent work [2], is limited to one page.

[1] J. Doe, Journal 3, 21 (2021).

[2] B. Smith, Journal 9, 87 (2022).