Zlom simetrije v realnem času (Slovene)

The project enabled us to develop a new femtosecond laser spectroscopy technique for measurements of symmetry breaking phenomena in real time in model condensed matter systems. Phase transitions are a key feature of many condensed-matter systems, such as liquids and solids. They are also thought to occur in cosmological events (the Big Bang) and in elementary particle collisions. The fundamentally different phenomena found in rapid transitions have only begun to be studied in relatively recent years. This project served as the foundation for an extensive research program on a world-class competitive level. The method enables us to measure the decoupling of different degrees of freedom for symmetry-breaking transitions induced by strong laser pulses. As a result, the project has lead to a number of high-profile publications, and more importantly, opened a new field of research, with significant interest worldwide.

The preliminary work on the project served as the foundation for the first ERC advanced grant in Slovenia on the »Coherent trajectories through symmetry breaking phase transitions«, which allowed the concept to be developed further to fruition. Importantly, the project helped to achieve a critical level of research activities of the group which was sufficiently focused to achieve a competitive world level. The project attracted attention of young researchers, and during the period of the project 3 PhD students completed on topics related to the project.. We have also organized an exclusive annual international workshop on the topic of non-equilibrium quantum systems, which is closely related to the topic of the project. The activities of the group's endeavours also lead to the discovery of new states of matter which have also found potential commerical application which is now the topic a of a number of new international and national project applications.