Symmetry, Topology, and Classifying Quantum "Stuff"
| Date/Time: | Monday, 27 Mar 2017 from 4:10 pm to 5:00 pm |
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| Location: | Phys 0003 |
| Phone: | 515-294-5441 |
| Channel: | College of Liberal Arts and Sciences |
| Actions: | Download iCal/vCal | Email Reminder |
Abstract: Over the past several decades, topology has emerged as an important part of how we understand materials in the quantum regime, allowing us to identify a new type of phase of matter known as a topologically ordered phase. More recently, we have understood that symmetry can act in topologically ordered systems in a way that is quite different from its effect in conventional systems. I will review how topology entered our understanding of quantum matter, (including work that lead to the 2016 Nobel Prize in physics), and how symmetry acts differently in some of these systems. This will allow us to explore new possibilities for quantum materials with strong inter-particle interactions.
Bio: Fiona Burnell is an assistant professor at the University of Minnesota (Twin cities). Prior to moving to Minnesota she was a post-doctoral fellow at All Souls college in Oxford, where she worked on topological phases with Steve Simon and frustrated magnetism with John Chalker. She did her doctoral work with Prof. Shivaji Sondhi at Princeton.