Dec 7 2016
This week, the Condensed Matter Theory Center (link is external) (CMTC) hosts its annual symposium, which brings attendees up to speed on the Center’s latest research interests. The symposium, which features 11 technical talks spanning two days (link is external), begins Dec. 7 and is open to all.
(Credit: Joint Quantum Institute)
This year’s talks cover a range of topics in condensed matter theory, reflecting the diverse interests of CMTC faculty, postdocs and students. These include Weyl semimetals, many-body localization and Majorana fermions—particles that played a leading role in a workshop that CMTC hosted at the end of October.
"CMTC wants to work on the most exciting frontier topics in the field because that’s what excites and enthuses the young researchers," says Sankar Das Sarma, the director of CMTC and a JQI Fellow. CMTC, which has held a symposium every year since 2006, invites all of its members to present their latest work, provided that the results have been written up in a research paper.
The symposium follows on the heels of CMTC’s October Majorana workshop (link is external), which brought together nearly 40 experts on the physics of certain semiconductor-superconductor junctions. Attendees critically examined the experimental evidence for Majorana quasiparticles at the ends of nanowires in such systems, concluding that no other explanation of experimental results seems consistent. The quasiparticles predicted to live in these systems could be useful for building a future quantum computer. Das Sarma says that the workshop was a success and hopes that CMTC can host a similar meeting in future years.