The lectures are divided into two groups, the core courses and applications. Brief details about each are provided below, courses appearing alphabetically within their group. Some of the material will be backed up in a series of tutorials, details of which can be found from the link given below.
Martin Lüders (Daresbury), 5 lectures, 2 tutorials
A quantitative understanding of bonding in condensed matter systems demands a solution of the many electron problem. This course will show how the many electron problem can be mapped onto single electron problems in an approximate way (Hartree and Hartree Fock approximations) and a formally exact way (density functional theory and the Kohn Sham equations). Further, some of the methodology used to solve the Kohn Sham equations in complex systems will be described. In the last part of the lectures, some examples will be discussed, which show how electronic structure theory was able to explain some selected phenomena.
Martin Lueders is a senior scientist at Daresbury Laboratories. His main research interests are in the field of material-specific electronic structure theory of correlated systems, including normal, superconducting and magnetic states. The aim is to develop and apply methods within the density functional theory (DFT) framework and beyond, which allow to study materials of current interest from first principles.
Richard Blythe (Edinburgh), 6 lectures, 2 tutorials
Statistical Mechanics aims to provide a macroscopic description of a physical system starting from knowledge of its microscopic properties. The methodology and techniques are widely used throughout condensed matter physics and are also today being applied to understand the dynamics of model ecologies, economies and societies. In these lectures, we will revisit the equilibrium properties of matter - such as phase transitions and universality - from the perspective of dynamics (as opposed to statics, as is typically done in undergraduate courses). Then we will be well-poised to tackle fluctuations in far-from-equilibrium (driven) systems, a subject currently generating considerable excitement in this field.
Richard is a lecturer/RCUK Acadmic Fellow at Edinburgh University, having previously been an EPSRC Research Fellow at Manchester and an RSE Fellow at Edinburgh. He researches nonequilibrium statistical physics, a term that's broad enough to have involved the study of model systems relevant to gas reactions, biopolymerisation, traffic flow, epidemic spreading, population genetics, cultural evolution and language learning.
Chris Hooley (St Andrew's), 6 lectures, 2 tutorials
This course deals mainly with the influence of interactions on the electrons in materials. We begin with a review of second quantisation and the Fermi gas theory of metals, and then progress to Landau's Fermi liquid theory and the notion of quasiparticles. The effect of impurities on the Fermi liquid (including the Kondo effect) is discussed, and we then move on to consider how the Fermi liquid gives way to other phases as the interactions are increased, concentrating on the Stoner instability and the Mott insulator. We analyse the magnetism in the Mott insulating phase, developing the concept of spin waves. Finally, we make a survey of recent experiments, giving basic interpretations in terms of the concepts developed in the course.
Chris Hooley is a lecturer at the University of St Andrews. He works on various topics in strong correlations, including quantum dots, low-dimensional magnetism and atomic condensates.
Peter King (Imperial College London), 2 lectures
Many industrial problems involve complex, disordered interacting systems. However, we only usually need to know properties of some average of the system - not the behaviour of all the individual parts. This means that statistical mechanics is the natural language required to formulate useful analyses of many industrial problems. Indeed there are so many potential applications, from financial forecasting, behaviour of complex processing plants, environmental (e.g. spread of pollutants), medical, food processing etc. that this course will concentrate on just a few. These will be image recognition and pattern formation (including some mention of granular media), flow in complex systems and (if time permits) decision making.
Peter King is professor of petroleum engineering at Imperial College London. He spent 18 years with BP applying renormalisation group and field theory to modelling flow in oil reservoirs and simulated annealing to help business decision making.
Tannie Liverpool (Bristol), 4 lectures, 1 tutorial
There are a plethora of open questions provided by an attempt to understand Cellular Biology in detail How do cells divide? How is DNA replicated? How are proteins made? How do cells move? How does our genetic code determine our characteristics as individuals? These are some of the most exciting questions in contemporary science and it is no wonder that they have captured the public imagination. A combination of chemistry, biology, physics, mathematics and lots of time will be required to eventually answer these challenging questions. We will consider a number of the ways in which condensed matter physics can contribute to this research programme. We will also discuss how cellular biology can act as a source of totally new physics given the intrinsically far from equilibrium nature of living matter.
Tannie Liverpool joined the faculty at the University of Bristol in September 2007. He works on many aspects of soft condensed matter physics and is particularly interested in its connections to cellular biophysics.
Andrew Armour, 4 lectures, 1 tutorial
Recent developments in solid state physics have ushered in an era of truly quantum circuits with the development of devices containing both 'artificial atoms' and quantum harmonic oscillators. A whole range of quantum coherent behaviour first explored using atoms and light by quantum opticians have now been observed in mesoscopic electrical circuits. Unlike their quantum optical counterparts, the quantum coherence of solid state 'artificial atoms' and quantum oscillators is seen in collective degrees of freedom which involve macroscopic numbers of electrons or atoms. The interactions between these collective degrees of freedom and their surroundings give rise to a loss of coherence (i.e. decoherence) and hence understanding these interactions is essential both for the successful development of quantum circuits and for understanding just how far we can expect quantum mechanics to penetrate into the 'macroscopic world'. In the lectures we will give examples of quantum circuits involving superconducting and even mechanical components. We will introduce the theoretical framework needed to obtain quantum mechanical Hamiltonians for collective degrees of freedom and to describe the decoherence that results from their interactions with their surroundings. We will also describe how such devices could be used to test the limits of our understanding of quantum mechanics.
Andrew Armour's research is focussed on the behaviour of nano-electromechanical systems. In such systems mesoscopic electronic components are coupled to collective vibrational modes of nanomechanical elements. Of particular interest is the regime in which the mechanical degrees of freedom require quantum mechanics for their proper description. Such systems provide excellent theoretical and experimental models for the investigation of fundamental issues in quantum mechanics, such as entanglement and decoherence.
Mike Evans (Leeds), 4 lectures, 1 tutorial
Why does milk curdle if you add orange juice? Why do opals seem to change colour when they move? Why do Formula 1 teams heat the tyres before a race? Look deeply into many semi-fluid materials, and you will find some elegant and subtle physics. We shall explore the unifying principles governing the properties of complex fluids, from molten plastics to mayonnaise, without the need to discuss any messy details of their chemistry.
Following his PhD from the University of Manchester, Theoretical Physics Department, Mike Evans spent six years doing postdoctoral research in Edinburgh University's Soft Condensed Matter group. Since 2001, he has been a member of the Polymers and Complex Fluids group at Leeds University's School of Physics and Astronomy, where he lectures, and researches non-equilibrium complex fluids and statistical mechanics.
Derek Lee (Imperial College London), 4 lectures, 2 tutorials
Superfluidity, superconductivity and Bose Einstein Condensates (BEC) are fundamentally related together; they are all macroscopic coherent quantum states of matter. In this course we shall introduce some of the basic principes and phenomena of BEC, superfluid Helium-4 and superconductivity, leading up to the Bardeen Cooper Schrieffer (BCS) theory of superconductivity. In the final lecture we shall discuss topics of curent research interest.
Derek Lee is a Lecturer in Physics at Imperial College London. His main interest in the physics of strongly correlated quantum fluids. He has worked on the theory of disordered superfluids, low-dimensional magnets, quantum Hall physics and high-temperature superconductivity. His most recent research concerns the recent observation of excitonic condensation in quantum Hall bilayers.
Andrew Ho (Royal Holloway), 3 lectures, 1 tutorial
Strong correlation effects when many quantum particles interact together has been one of the most interesting and challenging area in condensed matter physics. In the past the main systems studied are electrons in metals. Recent advances in trapping atoms in optical lattices at degeneracy temperatures have led to new systems that can directly simulate strong correlation models much studied in the past. In these lectures, I will use the superfluid insulator transition as the main example, and I will introduce briefly the cold atom optical lattice systems.
Andrew Ho is an EPSRC Advanced Research Fellow at the Dept of Physics, Royal Holloway, University of London. His main research interest is in theories of strongly correlated systems, including Kondo physics and low dimensional physics. Since 2003 a large part of his focus has been on ultracold atom systems. Since arriving at Royal Holloway last year, he has also become interested in modelling the Helium experiments at RHUL.
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