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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.
We are delighted that, in this year's IoP Awards, Prof Mark Warner was awarded the Bragg Medal for the Isaac Physics programme which "has revolutionised physics education for teachers and students in an extraordinary number of UK schools."
Prof Nigel Cooper received the Lord Rayleigh medal "for profound contributions to the quantum theory of many-particle systems, concerning both topological phases of cold atoms in artificial gauge fields and novel phenomena in electronic materials."
News archive(Click the above tab to reload the Seminars list.)
More seminars- Molecules with dipoles in periodic boundary conditions in a tetragonal cell. J. Phys. - Condens. Mat. 31 335901 (2019)
- Decay rates and energies of free magnons and bound states in dissipative XXZ chains Phys. Rev. A 99 063615 (2019)
- Finite temperature optoelectronic properties of BAs from first principles Phys. Rev. Mat. 3 065402 (2019)
- Multiscale dynamics of branching morphogenesis. Curr. Opin. Cell Biol. 60 99 - 105 (2019)
- Tracing the origin of adult intestinal stem cells. Nature 570 107 - 111 (2019)
- Lgr5+ stem/progenitor cells reside at the apex of a heterogeneous embryonic hepatoblast pool. Development dev.174557 (2019)
- Quantification of Crypt and Stem Cell Evolution in the Normal and Neoplastic Human Colon. Cell Rep. 27 2524 (2019)
- Dissipation-Induced Instabilities of a Spinor Bose-Einstein Condensate Inside an Optical Cavity. Phys. Rev. Lett. 122 193605 (2019)
- Identification of a regeneration-organizing cell in the Xenopus tail. Science 364 653 - 658 (2019)
- Tenfold way and many-body zero modes in the Sachdev-Ye-Kitaev model Phys. Rev. B 99 195123 (2019)
- Strictly local tensor networks for topological insulators with short-range interactions Phys. Rev. B 99 195125 (2019)
- Computational Fluorine Scanning Using Free-Energy Perturbation. J. Chem. Inf. Model. acs.jcim.9b00228 (2019)
- Prediction of the near-IR spectra of ices by ab initio molecular dynamics. Phys. Chem. Chem. Phys. 21 9433 - 9440 (2019)
- Pattern selection when a layer buckles on a soft substrate. Soft Matter 15 3751 - 3770 (2019)
- Optical backaction-evading measurement of a mechanical oscillator. Nature Comm. 10 2086 (2019)
- Large-Scale Study of Hydration Environments through Hydration Sites. J. Phys. Chem. B acs.jpcb.9b02490 (2019)
- Structure prediction drives materials discovery Nat. Rev. Mater. 4 331 - 348 (2019)
- Vorticity and quantum turbulence in the merging of superfluid helium nanodroplets Phys. Rev. B 99 140505 (2019)
- Probabilistic neural network identification of an alloy for direct laser deposition Mater. Des. 168 107644 (2019)
- Nuclear Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy as a Dynamical Structural Probe of Hydrogen under High Pressure. Phys. Rev. Lett. 122 135501 (2019)
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
We are delighted that, in this year's IoP Awards, Prof Mark Warner was awarded the Bragg Medal for the Isaac Physics programme which "has revolutionised physics education for teachers and students in an extraordinary number of UK schools."
Prof Nigel Cooper received the Lord Rayleigh medal "for profound contributions to the quantum theory of many-particle systems, concerning both topological phases of cold atoms in artificial gauge fields and novel phenomena in electronic materials."
Recent Publications
- Molecules with dipoles in periodic boundary conditions in a tetragonal cell. J. Phys. - Condens. Mat. 31 335901 (2019)
- Decay rates and energies of free magnons and bound states in dissipative XXZ chains Phys. Rev. A 99 063615 (2019)
- Finite temperature optoelectronic properties of BAs from first principles Phys. Rev. Mat. 3 065402 (2019)
- Multiscale dynamics of branching morphogenesis. Curr. Opin. Cell Biol. 60 99 - 105 (2019)
- Tracing the origin of adult intestinal stem cells. Nature 570 107 - 111 (2019)
- Lgr5+ stem/progenitor cells reside at the apex of a heterogeneous embryonic hepatoblast pool. Development dev.174557 (2019)
- Quantification of Crypt and Stem Cell Evolution in the Normal and Neoplastic Human Colon. Cell Rep. 27 2524 (2019)
- Dissipation-Induced Instabilities of a Spinor Bose-Einstein Condensate Inside an Optical Cavity. Phys. Rev. Lett. 122 193605 (2019)
- Identification of a regeneration-organizing cell in the Xenopus tail. Science 364 653 - 658 (2019)
- Tenfold way and many-body zero modes in the Sachdev-Ye-Kitaev model Phys. Rev. B 99 195123 (2019)
- Strictly local tensor networks for topological insulators with short-range interactions Phys. Rev. B 99 195125 (2019)
- Computational Fluorine Scanning Using Free-Energy Perturbation. J. Chem. Inf. Model. acs.jcim.9b00228 (2019)
- Prediction of the near-IR spectra of ices by ab initio molecular dynamics. Phys. Chem. Chem. Phys. 21 9433 - 9440 (2019)
- Pattern selection when a layer buckles on a soft substrate. Soft Matter 15 3751 - 3770 (2019)
- Optical backaction-evading measurement of a mechanical oscillator. Nature Comm. 10 2086 (2019)
- Large-Scale Study of Hydration Environments through Hydration Sites. J. Phys. Chem. B acs.jpcb.9b02490 (2019)
- Structure prediction drives materials discovery Nat. Rev. Mater. 4 331 - 348 (2019)
- Vorticity and quantum turbulence in the merging of superfluid helium nanodroplets Phys. Rev. B 99 140505 (2019)
- Probabilistic neural network identification of an alloy for direct laser deposition Mater. Des. 168 107644 (2019)
- Nuclear Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy as a Dynamical Structural Probe of Hydrogen under High Pressure. Phys. Rev. Lett. 122 135501 (2019)