Strong Correlations in Atomic Gases and Complex Materials

技术概述：该奖项支持凝聚态物理与原子、分子和光学物理之间的理论研究和教育。这项研究的重点是研究和发现强相互作用粒子系统的涌现性质。PI旨在提高对强相互作用电子和超冷原子在光学晶格陷阱中服从费米统计的两个领域的理解。第一个领域，从紧束缚对的玻色-爱因斯坦凝聚到发生在费米原子气体中的Bardeen Cooper Schrieffer理论的合作配对的新方面将被研究，特别强调非常强相互作用的么正区域。第二个领域涉及研究Mott金属-绝缘体转变附近的超导电性，并将其具体应用于高温超导体、其他过渡金属氧化物和低维有机金属系统。这项拟议的研究解决了凝聚态和复杂材料物理学中的关键问题。从紧束缚对的玻色-爱因斯坦凝聚到Bardeen Cooper Schrieffer理论的合作配对的交叉工作将集中在费米原子气中的强关联，这对量子色动力学中的夸克-胶子等离子体和颜色超导等各种领域都有意义。到目前为止，有许多材料的超导电性发生在Mott绝缘体附近，最著名的是高温超导铜酸盐。这些材料迫使我们使用非微扰方法来描述强关联。非技术概述：该奖项支持理论研究和教育，旨在了解复杂材料中出现的电子物质的已知新状态，并在高温超导体等复杂材料中发现物质的新状态，以及在用激光创建的空间周期陷阱中的原子中发现新状态的物质。这些看似不同的系统一方面位于凝聚态物理领域，另一方面位于原子、分子和光学物理领域，它们的共同特征是由许多组件组成的系统，无论是电子还是原子，它们相互作用很强。这项研究努力开发和应用先进的理论技术，以使人们能够理解从这些系统中出现的物质的不寻常性质和新状态。这是前沿的基础研究，有助于未来技术可能依赖的智力基础。这些包括量子信息系统、未来的先进电子设备，以及目前无法预见的可能性。这项研究活动还支持培养下一代凝聚态理论家。

TECHNICAL SUMMARY:This award supports theoretical research and education at the interface of condensed matter physics and atomic, molecular, and optical physics. The research is focused on the study and discovery of emergent properties of systems of strongly interacting particles.The PI seeks to advance understanding in two areas involving strongly interacting electrons and ultracold atoms obeying Fermi statistics confined in optical lattice traps. The first area, novel aspects of the crossover from Bose-Einstein Condensation of tightly bound pairs to the cooperative pairing of the Bardeen Cooper Schrieffer theory that takes place in atomic Fermi gases will be investigated with particular emphasis on the very strongly interacting unitarity regime. The second area involves a study of superconductivity near the Mott metal-insulator transition with specific applications to high temperature superconductors, other transition metal oxides, and low-dimensional organometalic systems. The proposed research addresses key issues in the physics of condensed matter and complex materials. The work on the crossover from Bose-Einstein Condensation of tightly bound pairs to the cooperative pairing of the Bardeen Cooper Schrieffer theory will focus on strong correlations in atomic Fermi gases, which has implications for fields as diverse as quark-gluon plasmas and color superconductivity in quantum chromodynamics. There are by now many materials in which superconductivity occurs near a Mott insulator, the best known being the high temperature superconducting cuprates. These materials force us to describe strong correlations using non-perturbative approaches.NON-TECHNICAL SUMMARY:This award supports theoretical research and education that seeks to understand known new states of electronic matter that arise in complex materials and discover new states of matter in complex materials like high temperature superconductors and in atoms in spatially periodic traps created with laser light. These seemingly diverse systems that lie in the domains of condensed matter physics on the one hand and atomic, molecular, and optical physics on the other, share the feature of being systems composed of many components, be they electrons or atoms, that interact strongly with each other. This research effort seeks to develop and apply advanced theoretical techniques to enable the understanding of the unusual properties and new states of matter that emerge from these systems.This is fundamental research at the frontiers that contributes to the intellectual foundations upon which future technologies may rest. These include quantum information systems, future advanced electronic devices, and currently unforeseen possibilities. The research activity also supports training the next generation of condensed matter theorists.