Back to Departmental Colloquium: Spring 2023
Departmental Colloquium
Date: Tuesday, Jan 17, 2023
Time: 4:00PM - 5:00PM
Location: JWB 335
Alexander Watson
University of Minnesota
Title |
Mathematics of novel materials from atomic to macroscopic scales |
Abstract |
The complex dynamics of electrons flowing through a material determine its electronic properties. These dynamics are quantum mechanical and present many surprising phenomena without classical analogues. I will present analytical and numerical work clarifying these dynamics in three novel materials which have attracted intense theoretical and experimental attention in recent years: graphene, the first “2D” material, whose electronic properties can be captured by an effective Dirac equation, topological insulators, whose edges host surprising one-way edge currents, and twisted bilayer graphene, an aperiodic material whose properties can be captured by an effective system of Dirac equations with periodic coefficients. I will then present ongoing and future work focused on further clarifying the properties of twisted bilayer graphene, which has emerged in recent years as an ideal platform for studying exotic quantum phenomena such as superconductivity. |
Applied Mathematics
Materials Science