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BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTAMP:20261003T141625Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20121116T203436Z
DTSTART:20100921T193000Z
DTEND:20100921T203000Z
UID:event664@bu.edu
URL:http://physics.bu.edu/internal/events/show/664
SUMMARY:The birth of topological insulators
DESCRIPTION:Featuring Joel Moore\, UC Berkeley\nHosted by: So-Young Pi\nPos
	ter: http://physics.bu.edu/posters/2010_Fall/02_Moore.pdf\n\nPart of the Ph
	ysics Department Colloquia Series.\n\nAbstract:\nMuch of condensed matter p
	hysics is concerned with understanding how different kinds of order emerge 
	from interactions between a large number of simple constituents. In ordered
	 phases such as crystals\, magnets\, and superfluids\, the order is underst
	ood through "symmetry breaking": in a crystal\, for example\, the continuou
	s symmetries of space under rotations and translations are not reflected in
	 the ground state. A major discovery of the 1980s was that electrons confin
	ed to two dimensions and in a strong magnetic field exhibit a completely di
	fferent\, "topological" type of order that underlies the quantum Hall effec
	t.\n\nIn the past few years\, we have learned that topological order also o
	ccurs in some three-dimensional materials\, dubbed "topological insulators"
	\, in zero magnetic field. Spin-orbit coupling\, an intrinsic property of a
	ll solids\, drives the formation of the topological state.  This talk will 
	explain what topological order means\, how topological were predicted and d
	iscovered\, and how they realize the "axion electrodynamics" studied by par
	ticle physicists in the 1980s. Two possible applications of these new mater
	ials are discussed in closing.
LOCATION:SCI 107\, 590 Commonwealth Avenue\, 02215
STATUS:CONFIRMED
CLASS:PUBLIC
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