The Workshop on Quantum Gauge Theories and Ultracold Atoms covers four areas of physics: physics of ultracold atoms and molecules and quantum information on one side, and quantum field theories used in high energy and condensed matter physics on the other. Ultracold atoms are of central interest in atomic, molecular and optical physics and quantum optics since more than 20 years. Recently the physics of ultracold atoms has proven to be the perfect playground for the quantum engineering (i.e. the preparation, manipulation and detection) of micro-, meso- and macroscopic states of quantum matter with an unprecedented precision and control.

In particular, ultracold gases in optical lattices can serve as “special purpose quantum computers” or quantum simulators of various condensed matter systems. Only few researchers so far have dared to go even further and to consider possible connections and applications of ultracold atoms  for problems relevant to high energy physics and quantum gauge theories, in particular non-Abelian ones. The challenges and hard-to-simulate problems of high energy and condensed matter physics provide the main motivation for organizing this workshop.