Physics (Internal)

Strange Metals and Black Holes

This event is part of the Physics Department Colloquia Series.

Strange metals are conducting states of quantum matter without any quasiparticle excitations. The copper-based high temperature superconductors display a strange metal at temperatures above the critical temperature, Tc, for superconductivity, and at electron densities where Tc is maximal. I will describe a solvable model of a strange metal whose properties match quantitatively with those of charged black holes. Then I will outline a general framework for computing observable properties of strange metals, drawing upon numerous theoretical methods, including the black hole mapping. Finally, I will describe a recent experiment in graphene, in which theory is compared with a (slightly less) strange metal.