Presence of quantum diffusion in two dimensions?
ABSTRACT :
All condensed matter systems possess disorder and interaction effects. Still, the qualitative effects of disorder and interactions in quantum systems are poorly understood. This is especially true when it comes to electrical conduction. The standard theory, developed for non-interacting particles over 40 years ago, predicted surprisingly that for the most part, disorder destroys metallic behavior in two-dimensional (2d) systems at zero temperature. For many decades, this “absence of quantum diffusion in 2d†was taken to be scientific law. However, with strong interactions, there is no reason to believe that this dogma survives. I will review the experiments that have challenged this conventional wisdom, and will describe ongoing theoretical efforts to establish that metallic ground states can occur in 2d due to strong interaction effects.
ABOUT THE SPEAKER:
Prof. Raghu was born in Hyderabad then moved to the US as a child. He is a theoretical condensed matter physicist. In 2006 he completed his Ph.D. from Princeton under the guidance of the Nobel Laureate Prof. F.D.M. Haldane. He was a post-doctoral fellow at Stanford before joining the faculty of Rice University in 2010. He moved to the faculty of Stanford University in 2011 and is now an Associate Professor there.