Strongly Interacting Fermions in Ultracold Atomic Gases and Correlated Materials

该奖项支持强相互作用费米系统领域的理论研究和教育。该项目与目前两类不同系统的实验密切相关，超冷原子气体和复杂材料，并将导致对量子多体物理学的基本见解。在强相互作用原子气体领域，PI将专注于：(i)超流体、铁磁和费米液相的研究，（ii）对偶隙和伪隙的光谱探测，以及（iii）剪切和体粘等动力学系数及其在统一体系中的异常行为。许多将要讨论的问题在固态材料中都有有趣的对应。这些问题包括在单带排斥模型中铁磁基态的可能存在，或者在强吸引费米气体中正常状态配对赝隙的存在，以及准粒子不明确定义的体制中的输运系数问题。PI还将探索光谱探针之间的相似之处，如冷原子的动量分辨射频光谱和复杂材料中的角度分辨光电发射。该项目的一部分将处理目前仅对复杂材料直接感兴趣的问题。PI将重点关注掺杂Mott绝缘体引起的强相关态无序的影响。一方面，无序引起纳米尺度的非均匀性，这在决定可观察性质方面起着重要作用，另一方面，它也作为局部扰动，为强相关电子态提供了新的见解。一个引人注目的例子是，在强相关超导体中，无序效应似乎被强烈抑制。这项研究将包括在研究前沿的重要问题上训练研究生。部分研究将导致原子、分子和光学物理、凝聚态物理和高能物理领域之间的交叉受精。今后，将在国际学术会议和暑期学校等地，通过演讲和讲座等方式，传播他的研究成果，并通过通俗讲座，向大学生和高中生传达科学研究的乐趣。该奖项支持理论研究和教育，以研究凝聚态物理核心的相互作用粒子系统的紧急特性。当成分强烈相互作用时，一些最有趣的性质就会出现。该项目旨在从理论上深入了解涉及超冷原子气体和复杂固态材料中强相互作用原子的两类问题。超冷原子气体是用激光或磁场冷却到非常接近绝对零度的原子气体。这项理论研究受到最近实验的强烈推动。PI的目标是获得新的见解，并通过实验做出可测试的预测。部分研究与物理领域有重叠，如核物理和高能物理。相关材料的研究旨在解决一些重要的问题，比如为什么高温超导体对材料中的杂质和缺陷具有不同寻常的抵抗力，这是一个既重要又具有实际意义的问题。这项研究将包括在研究前沿的重要问题上训练研究生。部分研究将导致原子、分子和光学物理、凝聚态物理和高能物理领域之间的交叉受精。今后，将在国际学术会议和暑期学校等地，通过演讲和讲座等方式，传播他的研究成果，并通过通俗讲座，向大学生和高中生传达科学研究的乐趣。

TECHNICAL SUMMARYThis award supports theoretical research and education in the area of strongly interacting Fermi systems. This project is closely tied to current experiments in two different classes of systems, ultracold atomic gases and complex materials, and will lead to fundamental insights into quantum many-body physics. In the area strongly interacting atomic gases, the PI will focus on: (i) the study of superfluid, ferromagnetic, and Fermi liquid phases, (ii) spectroscopic probes of pairing gaps and pseudogaps, and (iii) kinetic coefficients like shear and bulk viscosities and their anomalous behavior in the unitary regime. Many of the issues that will be addressed have interesting counterparts in solid state materials. These include questions like the possible existence of a ferromagnetic ground state in a single band repulsive model, or that of a normal state pairing pseudogap in strongly attractive Fermi gases, and questions about transport coefficients in regimes where quasiparticles are not well-defined. The PI will also explore the similarities between spectroscopic probes like momentum-resolved radio-frequency spectroscopy of cold atoms and angle-resolved photoemission in complex materials. A part of the project will deal with questions that are at the present time of direct interest only in complex materials. The PI will focus on the effect of disorder in strongly-correlated states which arise from doping Mott insulators. On the one hand, disorder gives rise to nanoscale inhomogeneity which plays a major role in determining observable properties, and on the other hand, it also acts as a local perturbation that gives new insights into the strongly correlated electronic state. A striking example is how disorder effects seem to be strongly suppressed in strongly correlated superconductors.The research will involve training graduate students in important problems at the frontiers of research. Parts of the research will lead to cross-fertilization between the fields of atomic, molecular and optical physics, condensed matter physics, and high energy physics. The PI will continue to disseminate his results through talks and lectures at international conferences and summer schools, and to communicate the excitement of scientific research to undergraduates and high school students through popular lectures. NON-TECHNICAL SUMMARYThis award supports theoretical research and education to study the emergent properties of systems of interacting particles which lies at the heart of condensed matter physics. Some of the most interesting properties arise when the constituents are strongly interacting. The PI aims to gain theoretical insight into two classes of problems involving strongly interacting atoms in ultracold atomic gases and in complex solid state materials. Ultracold atomic gases are gases of atoms that are cooled using lasers or magnetic fields to temperatures very close to the absolute zero of temperature. This theoretical research is strongly motivated by recent experiments. The PI's goal is to obtain new insights and to make predictions that are testable through experiment. Parts of the research have an overlap with areas of physics as diverse as nuclear and high energy physics. The work on correlated materials aims to address the important questions like why the high temperature superconductors are unusually robust against impurities and imperfections in the materials, a matter of both fundamental and practical importance. The research will involve training graduate students in important problems at the frontiers of research. Parts of the research will lead to cross-fertilization between the fields of atomic, molecular and optical physics, condensed matter physics, and high energy physics. The PI will continue to disseminate his results through talks and lectures at international conferences and summer schools, and to communicate the excitement of scientific research to undergraduates and high school students through popular lectures.