CAREER: Low-Energy Excitations in Systems of Strongly-Correlated Electrons

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This is a CAREER award for a research program on strongly correlated electron systems and the strange excitations which can determine their response to experimental probes. This research program is coupled to an educational initiative which seeks to bring the methods of modern condensed matter physics to the graduate classroom and its concepts to a wider audience. The ultimate goal of this research is to construct new quantitative theoretical frameworks for calculating the properties of materials whose electronic properties do not admit a conventional quasi-particle description. In particular, excitations will be considered which exhibit (1) spin-charge separation; or (2) non-abelian statistics, or (3) exist as a result of the combined effects of disorder and strong interactions. A number of concrete calculations of observable quantities, such as those measured in experiment, will complement this program. These problems call for the use of non-perturbative techniques - such as the renormalization group, the exploitation of dual representations, conformal invariance in 2D, topological methods, and the construction of variational wavefunctions - and an understanding of the interplay between strong interactions and disorder. The physical systems considered will include the cuprates and other unconventional superconductors, disordered 2D electron gases such as those found in high-mobility Si-MOSFETs, and the quantum Hall regime near even-denominator filling factors. The educational component of the award focusses on the development of a graduate textbook on modern condensed matter theory and a text for the general public on the concepts of condensed matter physics.%%%This is a CAREER award on theoretical condensed matter theory. In particular, research will be conducted on novel, new states of matter, e.g., the high temperature superconductors, for which conventional theoretical concepts fail. Thus, the research involves developing new techniques as well as their application to these novel states. The educational component of this award involves bringing these new techniques into the graduate classroom and bringing the concepts of condensed matter physics to the general public.***