Events Archive

Special Condensed Matter Seminar, Adam Nahum, MIT, "Quantum entanglement growth under random unitary dynamics"
Thu, Sep 29, 2016, 2:00 pm3:30 pm
A quantum many-body system, prepared initially in a state with low entanglement, will entangle distant regions dynamically. How does this happen? I will discuss entanglement entropy growth for quantum systems subject to random unitary dynamics — i.e. Hamiltonian evolution with time-dependent noise, or a random quantum circuit. I will show how…
Special CM Seminar, Aris Alexandradinata, Yale, "The first nonsymmorphic topological insulator: prediction and discovery"
Wed, Jun 8, 2016, 1:30 pm3:00 pm
Spatial symmetries in crystals are distinguished by whether they preserve the spatial origin. I will show how this basic geometric property gives rise to a new topology in band insulators, which we propose (and subsequently discover) to lie in the large-gap insulators: KHgX (X=As,Sb,Bi). These insulators are described by generalized symmetries…
Special Seminar: Edoardo Baldini, EPFL Lausanne, Switzerland, "Exploring the Nonequilibrium Dynamics of Collective Excitations"
Mon, Jun 6, 2016, 1:30 pm2:30 pm
One of the distinctive characteristics of strongly interacting and correlated quantum systems is the non-trivial interplay between low- and high-energy degrees of freedom. The origin of this interplay lies in the electron-electron and electron-boson interactions, which spread the optical spectral weight over a wide energy range. To address this…
Special Condensed Matter Seminar, Gregor Jotzu, ETH, "Probing Topological Floquet-Bands and Quantum Magnetism with Ultracold Fermions"
Fri, May 20, 2016, 1:30 pm3:00 pm
Complex quantum many-body systems are ubiquitous in nature, yet their behaviour often remains very challenging to predict with analytical or numerical calculations - especially when it comes to dynamics. However, using ultracold atoms in optical lattices it is possible to create precisely tunable, yet very accessible complex systems, which can be…
Special CM Seminar, Shaffique Adam, Yale-NUS, "The role of electron-electron interactions in graphene†"
Wed, May 18, 2016, 1:30 pm3:00 pm
About ten years ago, a new electronic material appeared – notable not only for its ease of preparation and theoretical simplicity, but also by its promise for future electronic devices. Single monatomic sheets of carbon, known as graphene, are described as weakly interacting massless Dirac fermions and in many ways, are a textbook system to test…
Condensed Matter Seminar, Dmitri Khevshchenko, UNC, "Demystifying the Holographic Mystique"
Mon, May 16, 2016, 1:15 pm2:30 pm
Thus far, in spite of many interesting developments, the overall progress towards a systematic study and classification of various 'strange' metallic states of matter has been rather limited. To that end, it was argued that a recent proliferation of the ideas of holographic correspondence originating from string theory might offer a possible…
Special CM Seminar, Thomas Iadecola, Boston College, "Wire constructions of Abelian topological phases in three or more dimensions"
Thu, May 12, 2016, 1:30 pm3:00 pm
Coupled-wire constructions have proven to be useful tools to characterize Abelian and non-Abelian topological states of matter in two spatial dimensions. In many cases, their success has been complemented by the vast arsenal of other theoretical tools available to study such systems. In three dimensions, however, much less is known about…
Condensed Matter Seminar, Roderich Moessner, Max Planck, "Dynamics of a Kitaev spin liquid"
Mon, May 9, 2016, 1:15 pm2:30 pm
The excitation spectra of topological phases of matter contain rather `direct' information about their unusual quasiparticles, while the corresponding bulk ground states tend to be rather featureless. Motivated by this observation, we have evaluated the dynamical structure factor of the Kitaev model on the honeycomb lattice, which is unusual…
Condensed Matter Seminar, Chetan Nayak, Microsoft, "Floquet Time Crystals: Spontaneously Broken Discrete Time-Translational Symmetry in Periodically-D
Mon, May 2, 2016, 1:15 pm2:30 pm
I will define what it means for time translation symmetry to be spontaneously broken in a quantum system, and show with analytical arguments and numerical simulations that this occurs in a large class of driven systems with discrete time-translation symmetry.

Condensed Matter Seminar, Qimiao Si, Rice U., "Frustrated Magnetism and Superconductivity in Iron Pnictides and Chalcogenides"
Mon, Apr 18, 2016, 1:15 pm2:30 pm
This talk will provide a brief overview of the field of the iron-based superconductivity (FeSC), and discuss several topical issues. In the beginning of the field, iron pnictides were the focus of attention. More recently, iron chalcogenides have taken the center stage, providing not only a renewed hope for even higher superconducting transition…
Condensed Matter Seminar, Monika Aidelsburger, Col. of France, "Artificial gauge fields and topology with ultracold atoms in optical lattices"
Mon, Apr 4, 2016, 12:00 pm1:30 pm
Many intriguing condensed matter phenomena such as the integer and fractional quantum Hall effect arise due to the non-trivial topological properties of the underlying system. Synthetic materials that consist of ultracold neutral atoms confined in crystal-like structures using laser beams have the potential to simulate and address the complex…
Special Condensed Matter Seminar, Panagiotis Kotetes, U. of Copenhagen, "Signatures of Majorana fermions in Shiba chains with or without spin-orbit in
Thu, Mar 31, 2016, 2:00 pm3:30 pm
Recent spin polarized scanning tunneling microscopy (SPSTM) experiments in magnetic chains [1] opened new routes for detecting the elusive Majorana fermions (MFs). Within the deep Shiba limit we calculate [2] the spatially resolved tunneling conductance of topological ferromagnetic chains [1,3] measurable by means of SPSTM. Our analysis reveals…
Condensed Matter Seminar, Michael Gullans, NIST/U. of MD, " Quantum Nonlinear Optics"
Thu, Mar 24, 2016, 12:00 pm1:00 pm
In the semiclassical theory of nonlinear optics, the nonlinear response of the medium is typically treated perturbatively and characterized in terms of just a few phenomenological parameters.  The remaining task, in this case, is to measure these coefficients as a function of frequency, wavevector, temperature, etc.  However, when the medium…
Special Condensed Matter Seminar, Alexey Soluyanov, ETH, "New Topological Excitations"
Wed, Mar 23, 2016, 1:30 pm3:00 pm
In recent years it was realized that our knowledge of possible quasiparticle excitations is incomplete even for non-interacting systems. I will talk about several novel topological excitations that appear in metals. One of them realizes a new type of Weyl fermion, hosting the behavior very different from its standard quantum field theory…
Condensed Matter Seminar, Haim Beidenkopf, Weizmann Institute, "Tantalizing Fermi arcs in a Weyl semi-metal"
Mon, Mar 21, 2016, 1:15 pm2:30 pm
A defining property of a topological material is the existence of surface bands that cannot be realized but as the termination of a topological bulk. In a Weyl semi-metal these are given by the surface Fermi-arcs, whose open-contour Fermi-surface curves between pairs of surface projections of bulk Weyl points of opposite chirality. We visualize…
Special Condensed Matter Seminar, Chaoxing Liu, Penn State, “Possible realization of bosonic symmetry protected topological phases in bilayer graphe
Tue, Mar 8, 2016, 1:30 pm2:30 pm
Ever since the discovery of time reversal invariant topological insulators, intensive research interests are focused on how to identify new topological phases that are protected by symmetry (known as symmetry protected topological states) and how to search for new topological materials to realize these topological phases. A large variety of…
Special CMS, Michael Brenner, Harvard, "Towards artificial living materials"
Wed, Feb 24, 2016, 2:30 pm4:00 pm
Biological systems provide an inspiration for creating a new paradigm for materials synthesis. Imagine it were possible to create an inanimate material that could both perform some function, e.g. catalyze a set of reactions, and also self replicate. Changing the parameters governing such a system would allow the possibility of evolving materials…