Thesis supervisor: Gergely Szirmai
Location of studies (in Hungarian): MTA Wigner Fizikai Kutatóközpont SZFI (Budapest) Abbreviation of location of studies: MTA W
Description of the research topic:
Recently, several proposals for phase transitions were made where the particles on a lattice are strictly localized, and only the exchange interaction between them plays a significant role. This way, it becomes possible to create exotic magnetic phases and trigger phase transitions between them with the help of ultracold atoms. A nice illustration is a phase transition between phases with identical symmetries but different topological properties.
Examples of such systems are spin liquids with low energy excitations, called spinons, carrying a definite spin quantum number but no electric charge. The spinons interact with each other through a dynamically generated gauge field. Spin liquid theory is one of the candidates to describe high transition temperature superconductivity in cuprates. The aim of the research is to investigate experimentally realizable magnetic systems in search for accessible quantities, novel phases and phase transitions between them.
Required language skills: angol Number of students who can be accepted: 1