Related papers: Light, Matter, Action: Shining light on active mat…

Active materials are capable of converting free energy into mechanical work to produce autonomous motion, and exhibit striking collective dynamics that biology relies on for essential functions. Controlling those dynamics and transport in…

Strong interaction between light and matter waves, such as electron beams in electron microscopes, has recently emerged as a new tool for understanding entanglement. Here, we systematically investigate electron-light interactions from first…

Interactions between dark matter and ordinary matter will transfer momentum, and therefore give rise to a force on ordinary matter due to the dark matter `wind.' We show that this force can be maximal in a realistic model of dark matter,…

For the past few decades, structured light has been gaining popularity across various research fields. Its fascinating properties have been exploited for both previously unforeseen and established applications from new perspectives. Crucial…

The light-matter interaction can be utilized to qualitatively alter physical properties of materials. Recent theoretical and experimental studies have explored this possibility of controlling matter by light based on driving many-body…

The interplay of light and magnetism has been a topic of interest since the original observations of Faraday and Kerr where magnetic materials affect the light polarization. While these effects have historically been exploited to use light…

Textbooks state that the successful application of Maxwell's Equations in physical optics problems requires light to interact with matter where any inhomogeneities are spaced by less than or equal to the wavelength of light; the 'dense'…

The ability to manipulate light at the level of single photons, its elementary excitation quanta, has recently made it possible to produce a rich variety of tailor-made quantum states and arbitrary quantum operations, of high interest for…

The physics of light-matter interactions is strongly constrained by both the small value of the fine-structure constant and the small size of the atom. Overcoming these limitations is a long-standing challenge. Recent theoretical and…

It is common in the study of a dizzying array of soft matter systems to perform agent-based simulations of particles interacting via conservative and often short-ranged forces. In this context, well-established algorithms for efficiently…

Spin-orbit interactions (SOIs) of light are manifestations of coupling between components of light's angular momentum. They are at play in most basic optical processes, offering opportunities both to understand their fundamental origin and…

We study the interaction of a light beams carrying angular momentum with a single, trapped and well localized ion. We provide a detailed calculation of selection rules and excitation probabilities for quadrupole transitions. The results…

Living systems are capable of locomotion, reconfiguration, and replication. To perform these tasks, cells spatiotemporally coordinate the interactions of force-generating, "active" molecules that create and manipulate non-equilibrium…

Light can carry a spin angular momentum, an intrinsic and extrinsic orbital angular momentum, associated with a circular polarization, optical vortex beams, and varying beam trajectories, respectively. The interplay between these momenta…

The concept of angular momentum is ubiquitous to many areas of physics. In classical mechanics, a system may possess an angular momentum which can be either transverse (e.g., in a spinning wheel) or longitudinal (e.g., for a fluidic vortex)…

Light microscopy allows observing cellular features and objects with sub-micrometer resolution. As such, light microscopy has been playing a fundamental role in the life sciences for more than a hundred years. Fueled by the availability of…

The development of small-scale sensors and actuators enables the construction of smart matter in which physical properties of materials are controlled in a distributed manner. In this paper, we describe how quantum computers could provide…

Droplets, sub-millilitre liquid volumes with at least one interface, have traditionally served as compartments for storing, transporting, and delivering materials. Beyond familiar applications in food, coatings, and consumer goods, they…

Dark matter, proposed decades ago as a speculative component of the universe, is now known to be the vital ingredient in the cosmos, eight times more abundant than ordinary matter, one quarter of the total energy density and the component…

Light beams can be symmetric under different transformations: translations, rotations, mirror symmetries, duality transformations, etc. In this thesis, a systematic way of characterizing these symmetries is presented. Then, it is shown that…