News

Congratulations to Ilya who is the Inaugural Julian Schwinger Fellow! The fellowship will support Ilya's studies of quantum geometry in strongly correlated states of matter.
Fantastic work, Ilya! See his publication here: The quantum geometric origin of capacitance in insulators

June 16 - July 7 Quantum Matter Through the Lens of Moiré Materials

Organizers: 
Philip Kim, Harvard University
Eslam Khalaf, Harvard University
Jed Pixley, Rutgers University
*Raquel Queiroz, Columbia University

Experimental advances in the ability to grow, isolate, twist, and stack two-dimensional materials have ushered in a new era in condensed matter physics. The moire patterns formed by stacking and twisting two lattices bring an immense tunability of quantum phases to two-dimensional materials, which are rapidly becoming the most exciting playground for the observation of exotic correlated phenomena. The goal of this workshop is to bring together current and future leaders in condensed matter physics, both experimental and theoretical, to discuss the rapid development of this novel class of quantum matter. An important theme of the workshop will focus on connections to other subfields to find creative solutions to open problems. The program will focus on pressing theoretical and experimental questions, such as the nature of the correlated states and the importance of topology, novel experimental techniques, pathways to the realization of long-sought quantum phases, and the identification of new twisted systems yet to be explored.

 

Applications here (Deadline January 31, 2024): https://aspenphys.org/physicists/summer/program/currentworkshops.html

Tunable Two-Dimensional Materials: Moiré and Beyond
Coordinators: Erez Berg, Eslam Khalaf, Jed Pixley, Raquel Queiroz, and Andrea Young; Scientific Advisors: Liang Fu and Jie Shan

This program will focus on the rapidly developing field of two-dimensional van der Waals materials, which offer unprecedented tunability over the band structure and have now become one of the most exciting venues to observe exotic correlated and topological phenomena. The program will bring together experts from theory and experiment to discuss open questions and challenges in existing van der Waals materials ranging from multi-layer graphene (either twisted or crystalline), twisted or stacked transition metal dichalcogenides, single-layer cuprate superconductors, and 2D quantum magnets. There will be a focus on novel theoretical approaches to the moiré problem such as mapping to heavy fermion systems, tensor networks, quantum Monte Carlo, or dynamical mean field theory. The program will also explore new frontiers in moiré systems such as light-matter interactions, twisted magnets and superconductors, and synthetic moiré materials, with the ultimate goal of finding a unifying framework for the richness of experimentally observed phenomena and proposing new platforms with qualitatively different phenomenology.

Apply here: https://www.kitp.ucsb.edu/activities/moire24

In our recently published paper we show that Dirac fermions do not like to get their speed to zero,  unless they really have to. Knowing how many knobs we need to fine-tune lays the foundation to find new topological flat bands with the possibility for exotic correlated phases:

https://journals.aps.org/prx/abstract/10.1103/PhysRevX.13.021012 

New demonstrations of superconductivity in multilayer stacks of graphene continue to emerge, even as researchers struggle to explain how it all works.

Daniel Garisto in Physics Today

Nishchhal Verma join us as a postdoc. Nish is interested in the interplay between topology and superconductivity in quantum materials, among many other things. We are delighted to have you join the team, Nish!

Jointly with Prof. Andrew Millis the topological matter group is searching for a new postdoctoral scientist interested in topological and strongly correlated properties of moire heterostructures. Don't hesitate to contact me if you are interested or know of any interested candidates.

Applications are encouraged to arrive before September 30.

I am very pleased to announce that our Topological Quantum Matter online courseis finally live! A project with my colleagues and friends at Weizmann Institute. 

Check the trailer here and enroll at https://www.edx.org/course/topological-states-of-matter for access to all the material. 

 

The 34th Annual Workshop on Recent Developments in Electronic Structure Theory will be held May 31-June 3, 2022 at Columbia University. This workshop series travels to a different institution within the US each year. This year, we will also celebrate Richard Martin's 80th birthday!

Join us virtually by registering in the website.

Raquel is participating in a program running at Simons Center for Geometry and Physics in Stony Brook from April 4 to May 27, 2022.

Find more about the program and videos of the lectures here.

Raquel Queiroz, a new assistant professor at Columbia, is setting her own rules as she explores the science of solid materials. Continue reading here.

 

Raquel is honored to join the Columbia University faculty of Physics starting January 2022. Check here for open positions in the newly formed group.

News item in the department

Raquel talked about the structural topology of bismuth at ES21 which took place at Flatiron Institute's CCQ. Recording here.

 

Raquel and Ady Stern (Weizmann) wrote an invited commentary for Journal Club for Condensed Matter Physics. 

 

Raquel talked about the topology of stacking faults and partial lattice defects in the RQMP research seminar in Quebec. Recording here

Press release in Science Daily of the beautiful experimental and theoretical collaboration to understand the phase diagram of twisted bilayer graphene. Toguether with Shahal Ilani, Erez Berg, Yuval Oreg, Felix von Oppen and Ady Stern, we discover a cascade of first order phase transitions that define the parent state of the electronic states at different densities.

Raquel was delighted to give an invited talk in the international workshop "Recent Developments on Multipole Moments in Quantum Systems" organized by Watanabe & Cho via Zoom. A remarkable list of speakers and participants and lively discussions - even in this new format!

Recording here

Press release on the first experimental realization of fragile topology with the groups of Sebastian Hueber at ETH and Andrei Bernevig at Princeton University - Check out in Phys.org: 

Fragile topology: Two new studies explain the strange electron flow in future materials

Check out Nature News and Views on our work on the hydrodynamic flow of electrons in graphene under a magnetic field.

 

Raquel received the the prize for outstanding achievements by the Feinberg graduate school of the Weizmann Institute of Science.

 

Check out our upcoming workshop on topological aspects of quantum matter at the Weizmann Institute of Science, organized in partnership with Max Planck Institute for the Chemical Physics of Solids

Details here.

Raquel gave a talk at the Relativistic Fermions and Nodal Semimetals from Topology program in Banff International Research Center, Canada.

Recording here.

Great meeting on Topological States of Matter at the International Institute of Physics, IIP, in Natal, Brazil.

Recording here.