TITLE: Exploring Weird Quasiparticles at the Heart of Quantum Matter (often using Extreme Magnetic Fields) ABSTRACT: Materials science has provided technologies to advance humanity through the millenia. In the wide range of modern materials grouped under the heading of “Quantum Matter”, electron charges and electron spins conspire in weird and collective ways to create new […]
Title: The unreasonable effectiveness of optical sum-rules in quantum many-body physics Abstract: Inspired by the discovery of a variety of correlated insulators in the moire universe, controlled by interactions projected to a set of isolated bands with a narrow bandwidth, we examine here a variety of partial optical sum-rules restricted to low-energies. Unlike standard […]
TITLE: Is an information viewpoint useful in condensed matter experiment? ABSTRACT: Some of the most significant developments in science concern information, from artificial intelligence to quantum computation and communications. In this regard there has long been a close connection between statistical mechanics and information theory. An interesting question then is whether we can use new […]
TITLE: Liquid Crystals as Cores and Claddings ABSTRACT: Liquid crystals (LCs) refer to structured mesophases that retain the ability to flow while exhibiting broken symmetries. One simple LC is the nematic phase (NLC), which is comprised of rod-shaped molecules that co-orient with a D∞h symmetry. Their anisotropic properties can be modeled locally using a prolate […]
TITLE: Quantum geometry: how to picture bound electrons in periodic lattices ABSTRACT: The concept of quantum geometry has been at the forefront of condensed matter physics, starting from how quantized Berry curvature leads to quantized Hall conductivity, anomalous velocities in Dirac metals, or other topological responses in a growing list of so-called topological materials. Recently, […]
Condensed Matter & Biological Physics Seminar: Salem Al Mosleh (University of Maryland Eastern Shore) Host: Brian Camley
TITLE: Memory and Plasticity in Amorphous Solids ABSTRACT: While we are all familiar with retaining information in a computer or our minds, memory is an essential quality of many more non-equilibrium systems around us. We consider what information is stored in the arrangement of the particles in a 2D solid adsorbed at an oil-water interface. […]
Scanning time-resolved optical studies on Kagome superconductors The kagome lattice provides a fascinating playground to study geometrical frustration, topology and strong correlations. The newly discovered kagome metals AV3Sb5 (A = K, Rb, Cs) exhibit exotic phases including charge density waves (CDWs) and superconductivity. In our study, we perform scanning birefringence and circular dichroism (CD) microscopy on CsV3Sb5. The scanning […]
TITLE: The search for a Kitaev spin liquid: predicting experiments and engineering its realization Host: Bob Leheny
TITLE: Optics with a Twist for Material Characterization ABSTRACT: Optical wavefront shaping (WFS) involves the ability to manipulate light fields both spatially and temporally. It has largely been enabled by the availability of spatial light modulators (SLM). SLMs are used to create arbitrarily complex light fields and also provide means to manipulate the funda- mental […]
Condensed matter and biological physics seminar: Calina Copos (Northeastern University) Host: Brian Camley
TITLE: Spin: stem-cell for emergence in quantum materials. ABSTRACT: 2025 is the centenary of quantum mechanics making this a good time to reflect on the past as a springboard for the bold research that the 21st century community of physicists can aspire to. One of the unexpected discoveries of Quantum Mechanics is Spin, a concept introduced […]