In this talk I will give an overview of the new directions in the young

field of topological photonics [1]. This field merges platforms and

techniques from AMO physics with ideas from topological states of matter

so to enlarge the functionalities of photonic devices and explore new

topological effects in wave mechanics and quantum many-body physics.

After an historical account of the early development of the field and of

its milestone achievements so far, I will sketch two among the most

promising and challenging directions, namely topological lasing and

fractional quantum Hall fluids of strongly interacting photons.

Both these directions raise a number of conceptual questions at the

crossroad of quantum many-body physics, quantum optics and

non-equilibrium statistical mechanics, and at the same time hint at

exciting applicative developments for opto-electronics and quantum

technologies.



[1] T. Ozawa et al., "Topological photonics", Rev. Mod. Phys. 91, 015006

(2019).