University of Waterloo
200 University Avenue West
Waterloo, Ontario, Canada N2L 3G1
Phone: (519) 888-4567 ext 32215
Fax: (519) 746-8115
Professor
Department of Physics
Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey
Dr Gabriel Kotliar holds a Board of Governors Professor Chair in the Physics Department at Rutgers University. He is well known for his contributions to the theory of strongly correlated and disordered electron systems. He was an Alfred P. Sloan Research Fellow in 1986-1988, received a Presidential Young Investigator Award in 1987, a Lady Davies Fellowship in 1994, a Guggenheim fellowship in 2003, the Blaise Pascal Chair in 2005 and the Agilent Technologies Europhysics Prize in 2006.
His current research interests include the theory of the Mott transition, superconductivity in strongly correlated electron systems, the electronic structure of transition metal oxides, lanthanides and actinides, and the development of first principles approaches for predicting physical properties of materials.
>> learn more about Dr. Kotliar's research
Our understanding of simple solids, is firmly grounded on the Fermi liquid concept and powerful computational techniques built around the density functional theory. These ideas form the basis of our “standard model” of solid state physics and have provided us with an accurate description of many materials of great technological significance.
Correlated electron systems are materials for which the standard model of solid state physics fails dramatically. The best known example being the copper oxide high temperature superconductors. Correlated electron materials continue to be discovered accidentally and surprise us with their exceptional physical properties and their potential for new applications. The most recent example is provided by the iron arsenide based high temperature superconductors.
From a theoretical perspective describing strongly correlated electron systems pose one of the most difficult non-perturbative challenges in physics. In this colloquium I will give an elementary introduction to the field of strongly correlated electron materials and Dynamical Mean Field Theory (DMFT) a non perturbative method which provides a zeroth order picture of the strong correlation phenomena in close analogy with the Weiss mean field theory in statistical mechanics.
Applications to transition metal oxides and to the recently discovered iron pnictides high temperature superconductors will be presented, and we will describe show the anomalous properties of correlated electron materials emerge from their atomic constituents.
I will conclude with an outlook of the challenges ahead and the perspectives for a rational material design.
All are welcome to attend. Please join us at 3:30pm in PHY 151 for light refreshments.
The University of Waterloo acknowledges that much of our work takes place on the traditional territory of the Neutral, Anishinaabeg and Haudenosaunee peoples. Our main campus is situated on the Haldimand Tract, the land granted to the Six Nations that includes six miles on each side of the Grand River. Our active work toward reconciliation takes place across our campuses through research, learning, teaching, and community building, and is centralized within our Office of Indigenous Relations.