Topological superconductors: Materials, topological order, and quenched disorder

凝聚态物质和材料理论以及凝聚态物理项目共同为该奖项提供支持。该奖项为一个研讨会提供了资源，该研讨会将理论家和实验学家聚集在一起，讨论一种可能在量子计算机开发中应用的新型超导。研讨会将于2018年4月24-25日在莱斯大学举行。一种材料是否导电提供了一种自然的分类，将材料分为铜等金属和硅等绝缘体。在过去的20年里，人们意识到绝缘体可以更有趣一些。有经典的绝缘体，如硅和橡胶，但也有拓扑绝缘体，具有绝缘体和包围表面和边缘的本征金属状态。硒化铋是一种由铋和硒元素制成的化合物，它提供了一个拓扑绝缘体的例子。自从发现了拓扑绝缘体以来，人们又提出了一类新的拓扑材料，其中就包括拓扑超导体。超导体对电流没有阻力。这反映了超导态电子的集体量子力学行为。拓扑超导体具有超导块体。虽然拓扑绝缘体具有相关的金属表面态，但拓扑超导体具有奇异的表面态，其行为与电子和光子等普通粒子的集合不同，但其方式可能形成通过操纵量子力学状态进行计算的基础。拓扑材料对噪声和缺陷具有很强的抵抗力，这些缺陷会扰乱大多数量子力学状态，严重限制了它们在量子计算机中的应用。在量子计算的潜在应用的推动下，现在全世界都在激烈地寻找具有拓扑超导体实验特征的材料。这次为期两天的研讨会将汇集来自世界各地的科学家，他们使用实验来探索候选材料，以及那些发展拓扑超导理论和现象学的科学家。本研讨会的一个重要特点是将重点放在块状拓扑超导材料和二维表面态。研讨会将解决聚集和聚焦这一新兴领域的理论和实验领导者的迫切需求，与设计量子计算机的其他努力相比，该领域受到的关注要少得多。将鼓励研究生和本科生参加研讨会，以激发对下一代的兴趣。这项活动将产生一份关于拓扑超导研究机会的报告。该研讨会与NSF的量子飞跃大理想相一致。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

The Condensed Matter and Materials Theory and Condensed Matter Physics Programs jointly contribute support to this award. This award provides resources for a workshop that brings together theorists and experimentalists to discuss a possible new kind of superconductivity that may have application in the development of quantum computers. The workshop will be held at Rice University on April 24-25, 2018. Whether a material conducts electricity or not provides a natural classification of materials into metals like copper and insulators like silicon. Within the past 20 years, it was realized that insulators can be bit more interesting. There are the classic insulators like silicon and rubber, but there are also topological insulators which have an insulating bulk and intrinsic metallic states that surround the surfaces and edges. Bismuth selenide, a compound made from the elements of bismuth and selenium, provides an example of a topological insulator. Since the discovery of topological insulators, new classes of topological materials have been proposed, among these are topological superconductors. Superconductors have no resistance to the flow of electricity. This reflects the collective quantum mechanical behavior of the electrons in the superconducting state. Topological superconductors have a superconducting bulk. While topological insulators have associated metallic surface states, topological superconductors have exotic surface states that behave differently than collections of ordinary particles like electrons and photons - the "particles" of light, but in a way that could form the basis of computation by manipulation of a quantum mechanical state. Topological materials are robust to noise and defects that would disrupt most quantum mechanical states and severely limit their use in quantum computers.Driven by potential applications to quantum computing, there is now an intense worldwide search for materials that exhibit the experimental signatures of topological superconductors. This two-day workshop will bring together scientists from around the world that use experiments to probe candidate materials, as well as those that develop the theory and phenomenology of topological superconductivity. An important distinguishing feature of this workshop will be a focus on bulk topological superconducting materials and two-dimensional surface states. The workshop will address an acute need to gather and focus theoretical and experimental leaders in this nascent field, which has received much less attention than other efforts to engineer quantum computers. Graduate and undergraduate students will be encouraged to attend the workshop to excite interest in the next generation. A report on opportunities in research on topological superconductivity will result from this activity. This workshop is aligned with the NSF's Quantum Leap Big Idea.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.