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.
TCM congratulates Prof Sarah Teichmann, FRS, as she starts her new role as Professor of Stem Cell Medicine at the Wellcome-MRC Cambridge Stem Cell Institute. We are pleased that she will remain affiliated with TCM, and only a few miles away.
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More seminarsPhoton, electron, spin, topology
Bo Peng,
Gunnar F. Lange,
Daniel Bennett,
Kang Wang,
Robert-Jan Slager
and
Bartomeu Monserrat
Negative refraction of Weyl phonons at twin quartz interfaces
Gunnar F. Lange,
Juan D. F. Pottecher,
Cameron Robey,
Bartomeu Monserrat
and
Bo Peng
Boosting photocatalytic water splitting of polymeric fullerene by reduced dimensionality from 2D monolayer to 1D chain
Cory Jones and
Bo Peng
Non-Abelian Floquet braiding and anom- alous Dirac string phase in periodically driven systems
Robert-Jan Slager, Adrien Bouhon, F. Nur Ünal
Thermal conductivity of glasses: first-principles theory and applications
Michele Simoncelli, Francesco Mauri, and Nicola Marzari
All publications
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
TCM congratulates Prof Sarah Teichmann, FRS, as she starts her new role as Professor of Stem Cell Medicine at the Wellcome-MRC Cambridge Stem Cell Institute. We are pleased that she will remain affiliated with TCM, and only a few miles away.
Recent Publications
Photon, electron, spin, topology
Bo Peng,
Gunnar F. Lange,
Daniel Bennett,
Kang Wang,
Robert-Jan Slager
and
Bartomeu Monserrat
Negative refraction of Weyl phonons at twin quartz interfaces
Gunnar F. Lange,
Juan D. F. Pottecher,
Cameron Robey,
Bartomeu Monserrat
and
Bo Peng
Boosting photocatalytic water splitting of polymeric fullerene by reduced dimensionality from 2D monolayer to 1D chain
Cory Jones and
Bo Peng
Non-Abelian Floquet braiding and anom- alous Dirac string phase in periodically driven systems
Robert-Jan Slager, Adrien Bouhon, F. Nur Ünal
Thermal conductivity of glasses: first-principles theory and applications
Michele Simoncelli, Francesco Mauri, and Nicola Marzari
All publications