 |
Center for Nonlinear Studies |
Electrons in solids have historically been considered to act as essentially free particles. Contemporary condensed matter physics has demonstrated the fallacy of this long-held view and uncovered a fascinating world of emergent quantum phases and their transitions. Surprises and puzzles abound in this new world, which present ample opportunities for new physics. I will use several strongly correlated systems to illustrate the surprising and often strange properties, and the considerable progresses that have been made in understanding the behavior as well as in extracting unifying principles. The examples I will discuss concern quantum criticality and correlated topology (and, in the following week, iron-based high temperature superconductivity). I will close with some observations about the larger lessons and the prospects for future discoveries. In strongly correlated quantum materials we let nature work for us and reveal new phenomena that may not have been conceived by our imagination; in turn, we extract new concepts and models that expand the horizons of condensed matter physics and, moreover, could be simulated by cold atom, photonic, gravity/string systems and beyond.
Host: Angel Garcia