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Theory of Condensed Matter
Theoretical Condensed Matter physics is about building models of physical processes, often driven by experimental data, generalising the solutions of those models to make experimental predictions, and transferring the concepts gained into other areas of research. Theory plays an important role in understanding known phenomena and in predicting new ones.
With over seventy members, the TCM Group is one of the largest research Groups in the Cavendish Laboratory, and the largest university Condensed Matter Theory group in the country. Able to trace its history back for over sixty years, it has been home to many leading theoreticians.
Starting at the first principles microscopic level - with the Schrödinger equation - many properties of materials can now be calculated with a high degree of accuracy. We work on refining and developing new calculational tools and applying them to problems in physics, chemistry, materials science and biology.
Solids often show unusual collective behaviour resulting from cooperative quantum or classical phenomena. For this type of physics a more model-based approach is appropriate, and we are using such methods to attack problems in magnetism, superconductivity, nonlinear optics, mesoscopic systems, polymers, and colloids.
Collective behaviour comes even more to the fore in systems on a larger scale. As examples, we work on self-organising structures in "soft" condensed matter systems, non-linear dynamics of interacting systems, the observer in quantum mechanics, and models of biophysical processes, from the molecular scale up to neural systems.
Congratulations to Bruno Loureiro on a successful PhD viva. We wish Bruno well for the future.
Congratulations to Max McGinley on winning the Nature Reviews Physics prize for the best poster at the ICTP Conference on Quantum Dynamics of Disordered Interacting Systems in Trieste.
News archive(Click the above tab to reload the Seminars list.)
More seminars- Excitations in the field-induced quantum spin liquid state of alpha-RuCl3 npj Quantum Materials 3 8 (2018)
- Sodiation and Desodiation via Helical Phosphorus Intermediates in High-Capacity Anodes for Sodium-Ion Batteries. J. Am. Chem. Soc. 140 7994 - 8004 (2018)
- Structure and Metallicity of Phase v of Hydrogen Phys. Rev. Lett. 120 255701 (2018)
- Chaotic-Integrable Transition in the Sachdev-Ye-Kitaev Model Phys. Rev. Lett. 120 (2018)
- Estimating Atomic Contributions to Hydration and Binding Using Free Energy Perturbation. J. Chem. Theory Comput. 14 3218 - 3227 (2018)
- Quantized Rabi oscillations and circular dichroism in quantum Hall systems Phys. Rev. A 97 061602 (2018)
- Photophysics and Photochemistry of DNA Molecules: Electronic Excited States Leading to Thymine Dimerization J. Phys. Chem. C 122 11633 - 11640 (2018)
- Mapping uncharted territory in ice from zeolite networks to ice structures. Nature Comm. 9 2173 (2018)
-
Bulk properties and near-critical behaviour of SiO
2 fluid Earth Planet Sci. Lett. 491 11 - 20 (2018) - Quantitative metrics for drug-target ligandability. Drug Discov. Today 23 1258 - 1266 (2018)
- Clonal analysis of Notch1-expressing cells reveals the existence of unipotent stem cells that retain long-term plasticity in the embryonic mammary gland. Nat. Cell Biol. 20 677 - 687 (2018)
- Phases of driven two-level systems with nonlocal dissipation Phys. Rev. A 97 053616 (2018)
- The developmental origin of brain tumours: a cellular and molecular framework. Development 145 (2018)
- Role of electron-phonon coupling and thermal expansion on band gaps, carrier mobility, and interfacial offsets in kesterite thin-film solar cells Appl. Phys. Lett. 112 193903 (2018)
- Materials data validation and imputation with an artificial neural network Comp. Mater. Sci. 147 176 - 185 (2018)
- Predominant Asymmetrical Stem Cell Fate Outcome Limits the Rate of Niche Succession in Human Colonic Crypts. EBioMedicine 31 166 - 173 (2018)
- Universality of clone dynamics during tissue development (vol 14, pg 469, 2018) Nat. Phys. 14 523 (2018)
- Evidence from Quantum Monte Carlo Simulations of Large-Gap Superfluidity and BCS-BEC Crossover in Double Electron-Hole Layers. Phys. Rev. Lett. 120 177701 (2018)
- Current rectification in a double quantum dot through fermionic reservoir engineering Phys. Rev. B 97 165308 (2018)
- Entanglement negativity and sudden death in the toric code at finite temperature Phys. Rev. B 97 144410 (2018)
Theoretical Condensed Matter physics is about building models of physical processes, often driven by experimental data, generalising the solutions of those models to make experimental predictions, and transferring the concepts gained into other areas of research. Theory plays an important role in understanding known phenomena and in predicting new ones.
With over seventy members, the TCM Group is one of the largest research Groups in the Cavendish Laboratory, and the largest university Condensed Matter Theory group in the country. Able to trace its history back for over sixty years, it has been home to many leading theoreticians.
Starting at the first principles microscopic level - with the Schrödinger equation - many properties of materials can now be calculated with a high degree of accuracy. We work on refining and developing new calculational tools and applying them to problems in physics, chemistry, materials science and biology.
Solids often show unusual collective behaviour resulting from cooperative quantum or classical phenomena. For this type of physics a more model-based approach is appropriate, and we are using such methods to attack problems in magnetism, superconductivity, nonlinear optics, mesoscopic systems, polymers, and colloids.
Collective behaviour comes even more to the fore in systems on a larger scale. As examples, we work on self-organising structures in "soft" condensed matter systems, non-linear dynamics of interacting systems, the observer in quantum mechanics, and models of biophysical processes, from the molecular scale up to neural systems.
News
Congratulations to Bruno Loureiro on a successful PhD viva. We wish Bruno well for the future.
Congratulations to Max McGinley on winning the Nature Reviews Physics prize for the best poster at the ICTP Conference on Quantum Dynamics of Disordered Interacting Systems in Trieste.
Recent Publications
- Excitations in the field-induced quantum spin liquid state of alpha-RuCl3 npj Quantum Materials 3 8 (2018)
- Sodiation and Desodiation via Helical Phosphorus Intermediates in High-Capacity Anodes for Sodium-Ion Batteries. J. Am. Chem. Soc. 140 7994 - 8004 (2018)
- Structure and Metallicity of Phase v of Hydrogen Phys. Rev. Lett. 120 255701 (2018)
- Chaotic-Integrable Transition in the Sachdev-Ye-Kitaev Model Phys. Rev. Lett. 120 (2018)
- Estimating Atomic Contributions to Hydration and Binding Using Free Energy Perturbation. J. Chem. Theory Comput. 14 3218 - 3227 (2018)
- Quantized Rabi oscillations and circular dichroism in quantum Hall systems Phys. Rev. A 97 061602 (2018)
- Photophysics and Photochemistry of DNA Molecules: Electronic Excited States Leading to Thymine Dimerization J. Phys. Chem. C 122 11633 - 11640 (2018)
- Mapping uncharted territory in ice from zeolite networks to ice structures. Nature Comm. 9 2173 (2018)
-
Bulk properties and near-critical behaviour of SiO
2 fluid Earth Planet Sci. Lett. 491 11 - 20 (2018) - Quantitative metrics for drug-target ligandability. Drug Discov. Today 23 1258 - 1266 (2018)
- Clonal analysis of Notch1-expressing cells reveals the existence of unipotent stem cells that retain long-term plasticity in the embryonic mammary gland. Nat. Cell Biol. 20 677 - 687 (2018)
- Phases of driven two-level systems with nonlocal dissipation Phys. Rev. A 97 053616 (2018)
- The developmental origin of brain tumours: a cellular and molecular framework. Development 145 (2018)
- Role of electron-phonon coupling and thermal expansion on band gaps, carrier mobility, and interfacial offsets in kesterite thin-film solar cells Appl. Phys. Lett. 112 193903 (2018)
- Materials data validation and imputation with an artificial neural network Comp. Mater. Sci. 147 176 - 185 (2018)
- Predominant Asymmetrical Stem Cell Fate Outcome Limits the Rate of Niche Succession in Human Colonic Crypts. EBioMedicine 31 166 - 173 (2018)
- Universality of clone dynamics during tissue development (vol 14, pg 469, 2018) Nat. Phys. 14 523 (2018)
- Evidence from Quantum Monte Carlo Simulations of Large-Gap Superfluidity and BCS-BEC Crossover in Double Electron-Hole Layers. Phys. Rev. Lett. 120 177701 (2018)
- Current rectification in a double quantum dot through fermionic reservoir engineering Phys. Rev. B 97 165308 (2018)
- Entanglement negativity and sudden death in the toric code at finite temperature Phys. Rev. B 97 144410 (2018)