Topological Materials and Electron Correlations

拓扑材料和电子关联

• 批准号: 2015642
• 负责人: Matthew Foster
• 金额: $ 0.7万
• 依托单位: William Marsh Rice University
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2020
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2020-04-01 至 2022-05-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=2015642&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Topological; Materials; Electron; Correlations

The Condensed Matter and Materials Theory and Condensed Matter Physics Programs jointly contribute support to this award.Non-Technical SummaryOver the last couple of decades, the mathematical concept of "topology" has emerged as a new organizing principle in the science of materials, one that can determine, for example, whether the surface of a solid is metallic or electrically insulating. Topology refers to global properties that stay the same when a material is perturbed locally. Topological materials properties remain robust, for instance, against the presence of local imperfections or dirt. The interactions between electrons in topological materials can be weak or strong, and, because the methods used to study these two classes differ, two communities of scientists have been working on parallel tracks. The breadth of the field calls for interactions among the communities. This workshop aims to bring together top experts from these two communities to highlight the recent achievements in each area and to provide a forum for cross-talk between the subjects. Rice University's Rice Center for Quantum Materials will host a two-day workshop on this topic, bringing together top experts and junior researchers from around the globe who probe experimentally candidate materials, develop theoretically the phenomenology of topological materials, and understand the role of strong correlations. The key distinguishing feature of this workshop will be to bring together the weakly and strongly correlated communities interested in topological materials. This will address an acute need to understand and explore the intersection between topological matter and strong correlations.Technical SummaryTopological matter in weakly correlated electrons has seen major advances in recent years. Examples include the discovery of "higher-order" topological insulators and their potential experimental realization, Weyl semimetals in magnetically ordered materials, and explorations of topological states of magnons. Meanwhile, rapid progress has taken place during the last couple of years in exploring electronic topology of strongly correlated systems. Examples include the discovery of strongly correlated Weyl semimetals in heavy-Fermion materials and progress in the search for signatures of topological states in Kondo insulators and iron-based superconductors. For the most part, the two directions have been developing with very limited crosstalk. Now is a particularly opportune time to foster active dialogue between the two communities. The workshop aims to realize this goal by bringing together key players interested in topological materials from the communities of both weak and strong correlations. To enhance the opportunities for crosstalk, it will feature a variety of materials, ranging from weakly interacting systems involving sp-electrons, strongly correlated compounds based on d- and f- electrons, engineered structures including graphene layers, liquid 3He and ultracold atoms. The topics have been chosen with a view to both the level of excitement and the pace of advances that have been made in recent years, as well as by the potential for cross fertilization.With permission from the speakers, the slides from the talks will be compiled and made available for download in pdf form from the meeting website following the conclusion of the meeting. The slides will include the summary outcomes of the group discussions. The participants will be encouraged to use these as a springboard for graduate education about these problems at their institutions.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.

凝聚态物质与材料理论和凝聚态物质物理项目共同为该奖项提供支持。在过去的几十年里，“拓扑”的数学概念已经成为材料科学中的一种新的组织原理，例如，它可以确定固体表面是金属的还是电绝缘的。拓扑学是指当材料局部受到扰动时保持不变的全局属性。拓扑材料的特性保持稳定，例如，抵抗局部缺陷或污垢的存在。拓扑材料中电子之间的相互作用可以是弱的，也可以是强的，而且，由于研究这两类电子的方法不同，两个科学家团体一直在平行的轨道上工作。该领域的广度需要社区之间的互动。本次研讨会旨在汇集来自这两个领域的顶尖专家，突出各自领域的最新成就，并为主题之间的交流提供一个论坛。莱斯大学的莱斯量子材料中心将举办为期两天的研讨会，汇集了来自世界各地的顶级专家和初级研究人员，他们探索实验候选材料，从理论上发展拓扑材料的现象学，并理解强相关性的作用。本次研讨会的主要特点是将对拓扑材料感兴趣的弱相关和强相关社区聚集在一起。这将解决迫切需要理解和探索拓扑物质和强相关性之间的交集。近年来，弱相关电子中的拓扑物质研究取得了重大进展。例子包括“高阶”拓扑绝缘体的发现及其潜在的实验实现，磁性有序材料中的Weyl半金属，以及对磁振子拓扑状态的探索。与此同时，在过去的几年中，在探索强相关系统的电子拓扑结构方面取得了迅速的进展。例子包括在重费米子材料中发现强相关的Weyl半金属，以及在寻找近藤绝缘体和铁基超导体的拓扑状态特征方面取得进展。在很大程度上，这两个方向一直在发展，相互之间的交流非常有限。现在是促进两族之间积极对话的特别时机。研讨会旨在通过将来自弱相关性和强相关性社区的对拓扑材料感兴趣的关键参与者聚集在一起来实现这一目标。为了增加串扰的机会，它将采用各种材料，包括涉及sp电子的弱相互作用系统，基于d和f电子的强相关化合物，包括石墨烯层，液态3He和超冷原子在内的工程结构。选择这些题目是考虑到近年来取得的令人兴奋的程度和进展的速度，以及交叉受精的潜力。在得到演讲者的许可后，会议的幻灯片将被整理，并在会议结束后从会议网站上以pdf格式下载。幻灯片将包括小组讨论的总结结果。将鼓励参与者利用这些作为跳板，在他们的机构进行有关这些问题的研究生教育。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。