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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.
Pavao Santak has been elected MCR President of Fitzwilliam College. Well done!
2nd May. New PhD studentship available: Payne and Mohsin surface-wave electromagnetic propagation over copper (in collaboration with BT). Contact Prof Mike Payne for further details.
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)
-
Bulk properties and near-critical behaviour of SiO
2 fluid Earth Planet Sci. Lett. 491 11 - 20 (2018) - Materials data validation and imputation with an artificial neural network Comp. Mater. Sci. 147 176 - 185 (2018)
- Entanglement negativity and sudden death in the toric code at finite temperature Phys. Rev. B 97 144410 (2018)
- Integrin α2 marks a niche of trophoblast progenitor cells in first trimester human placenta. Development 145 (2018)
- Infinite lattices of vortex molecules in Rabi-coupled condensates Phys. Rev. A 97 043609 (2018)
- Semiclassical dynamics, Berry curvature, and spiral holonomy in optical quasicrystals Phys. Rev. A 97 043603 (2018)
- C2x: A tool for visualisation and input preparation for CASTEP and other electronic structure codes Comput. Phys. Commun. 225 174 - 179 (2018)
- A Gene Regulatory Network for Cellular Reprogramming in Plant Regeneration. Plant Cell Physiol. 59 765 - 777 (2018)
- Strong coupling superconductivity in a quasiperiodic host-guest structure. Science Advances 4 eaao4793 (2018)
- Tuning the relaxation dynamics of ultracold atoms in a lattice with an optical cavity Phys. Rev. A 97 033618 (2018)
- Chemical event chain model of coupled genetic oscillators Physical Review E - Statistical, Nonlinear, and Soft Matter Physics 97 032409 (2018)
- Probabilistic design of a molybdenum-base alloy using a neural network Scripta Mater. 146 82 - 86 (2018)
- Physics of the Kitaev model: fractionalization, dynamical correlations, and material connections Annual Review of Cond. Matt. Physics 9 17 - 33 (2018)
- Quantitative metrics for drug-target ligandability. Drug Discov. Today (2018)
- Coherence effects in disordered geometries with a field-theory dual J. High Energy Phys. 2018 (2018)
- Electron-phonon coupling from finite differences. J. Phys. - Condens. Mat. 30 083001 (2018)
- Noisy Spins and the Richardson-Gaudin Model Phys. Rev. Lett. 120 090401 (2018)
- Universality of clone dynamics during tissue development Nat. Phys. 1 - 6 (2018)
- Dephasing with strings attached Phys. Rev. B 97 085121 (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
Pavao Santak has been elected MCR President of Fitzwilliam College. Well done!
2nd May. New PhD studentship available: Payne and Mohsin surface-wave electromagnetic propagation over copper (in collaboration with BT). Contact Prof Mike Payne for further details.
Recent Publications
- Excitations in the field-induced quantum spin liquid state of alpha-RuCl3 npj Quantum Materials 3 8 (2018)
-
Bulk properties and near-critical behaviour of SiO
2 fluid Earth Planet Sci. Lett. 491 11 - 20 (2018) - Materials data validation and imputation with an artificial neural network Comp. Mater. Sci. 147 176 - 185 (2018)
- Entanglement negativity and sudden death in the toric code at finite temperature Phys. Rev. B 97 144410 (2018)
- Integrin α2 marks a niche of trophoblast progenitor cells in first trimester human placenta. Development 145 (2018)
- Infinite lattices of vortex molecules in Rabi-coupled condensates Phys. Rev. A 97 043609 (2018)
- Semiclassical dynamics, Berry curvature, and spiral holonomy in optical quasicrystals Phys. Rev. A 97 043603 (2018)
- C2x: A tool for visualisation and input preparation for CASTEP and other electronic structure codes Comput. Phys. Commun. 225 174 - 179 (2018)
- A Gene Regulatory Network for Cellular Reprogramming in Plant Regeneration. Plant Cell Physiol. 59 765 - 777 (2018)
- Strong coupling superconductivity in a quasiperiodic host-guest structure. Science Advances 4 eaao4793 (2018)
- Tuning the relaxation dynamics of ultracold atoms in a lattice with an optical cavity Phys. Rev. A 97 033618 (2018)
- Chemical event chain model of coupled genetic oscillators Physical Review E - Statistical, Nonlinear, and Soft Matter Physics 97 032409 (2018)
- Probabilistic design of a molybdenum-base alloy using a neural network Scripta Mater. 146 82 - 86 (2018)
- Physics of the Kitaev model: fractionalization, dynamical correlations, and material connections Annual Review of Cond. Matt. Physics 9 17 - 33 (2018)
- Quantitative metrics for drug-target ligandability. Drug Discov. Today (2018)
- Coherence effects in disordered geometries with a field-theory dual J. High Energy Phys. 2018 (2018)
- Electron-phonon coupling from finite differences. J. Phys. - Condens. Mat. 30 083001 (2018)
- Noisy Spins and the Richardson-Gaudin Model Phys. Rev. Lett. 120 090401 (2018)
- Universality of clone dynamics during tissue development Nat. Phys. 1 - 6 (2018)
- Dephasing with strings attached Phys. Rev. B 97 085121 (2018)