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Physics is the science and art of measurement. Its purview in the
21st century is vast, spanning from the cosmic scale of the Universe down to
the infinitesimal limit of point-like particles. The energy scales of observed
physical phenomena are commensurately vast too. While it is often said in
the context of history, that it does not repeat, but rhymes, it is widely
recognized that core concepts of physics display a remarkable universality
across domains.
Here I will speak about one system, that of ultra cold trapped ions, which
exhibits the possibility of reaching out across domains. I will start by showing
how crystals can be built, one atom at a time. We will use core quantum
concepts with atoms, to demonstrate phenomena which are much more
familiar in high energy physics, nonlinear dynamics, phase transitions, and
statistical physics. The remarkable thing about the trapped ion system is that
each atom can be photographed and filmed, so we can see the atomic
dance in real time. This is the most visual that physical phenomena can get
at the atomic scale.
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