Strong interactions and disorder in electron systems

凝聚态物理学是研究电子、原子核和电磁力的基本成分所产生的各种物理性质的科学。出现的材料和图案本身就令人着迷，并经常被证明具有巨大的实用价值。这项研究计划旨在建立对系统性质的理解，在该系统中，与粒子之间相互作用相关的能量尺度，特别是在很短的长度尺度上，主导着动能。这类系统的例子包括过渡金属氧化物、一些有机电荷转移络合物和磁光陷阱中的超冷原子云。过渡金属氧化物表现出许多有趣的和潜在的有用的性质，包括高温超导、巨大的磁阻和多铁性。为了产生这些性质，材料通常通过原子替代来掺杂，导致原子尺度上的参数变化，称为无序。这项研究的重点是了解无序对强相互作用系统的影响。特别是，我建议通过对小星系团的仔细研究来加强对最近发现的多体定域相的理解，利用这项工作的见解来建立一种新的计算方法来研究大系统，并探索如何在高度受控的量子点结构环境中观察强关联系统的一些独特特征。对外来材料性质的理解和控制是根本性新技术的驱动力。

Condensed matter physics is the study of the diverse physical properties which arise from the essential ingredients of electrons, nuclei and electromagnetic forces. The materials and patterns which emerge are fascinating in their own right and have often proven to be of immense practical value. This research program aims to build understanding of the properties of systems in which the energy scale associated with the interactions between particles, especially at very short length scales, dominates the kinetic energy. Examples of such systems include transition metal oxides, some organic charge-transfer complexes, and ultracold atomic clouds in magneto-optical traps. Transition metal oxides display a wide range of interesting and potentially useful properties including high-temperature superconductivity, colossal magneto-resistance and multiferroicity. To produce these properties, the materials are often doped by atomic substitution, resulting in variations in parameters at the atomic scale referred to as disorder. The focus of this research is understanding the effect of disorder in strongly interacting systems. In particular I propose to use a careful study of small clusters to enhance understanding of the recently discovered many-body localized phase, use insights from this work to build a new calculation method for studying large systems, and explore ways to observe some of the unique features of strongly correlated systems in the highly controlled environment of quantum dot structures. Understanding and control of exotic materials properties is the driver of fundamentally new technologies.