This award supports computational and theoretical research and education involving massively parallel numerical simulations with an aim to understand materials where strong electronic correlations play an important role. Courseware will be developed and research related codes will be disseminated and documented. The PI will continue developing cluster mean field techniques with a focus on inhomogeneity and phonons in strongly correlated systems, the effect of spin-orbit coupling, disorder and non-local correlations in spintronic materials, and the effect of non-local correlations in heavy Fermion materials.
Key objectives of the project include: . Developing a better understanding of the role of inhomogeneity and phonons in the cuprates. . Studying the effect of frustration and non-local correlations in dilute ferromagnetic semiconductors such as GaMnAs. . Developing a better understanding of the role of non-local correlations for the problem of exhaustion and pairing in some heavy Fermion systems. . Enhance the impact of the research through the dissemination of example codes. . Continue the development of courseware emphasizing computational techniques.
The research will involve international collaborators. The products of this project including papers, courseware, and example codes, will be available through the web. The impact of this research is further enhanced through the development of new computational algorithms with broad applications, and more directly through the distribution of examples of these codes on the PI's web site and on public repositories of Scientific software such as the MCC Software Archive. Distributed codes include Maximum Entropy codes for analytic continuation, and dynamical mean field and dynamical cluster codes. Education is heavily integrated into this project, both through the support of graduate students and through the continued development of NSF sponsored courseware distributed through the PI's web site. Additional outreach is accomplished through the local "Physics by Inquiry" program which includes 6 weeks of professional development for in-service K-12 science teachers during the summer. Each graduate student supported by NSF funds spends two months during the summer working on these projects. This program is very successful, since it not only improves the teaching skills and marketability of our students, but also has a large impact on science teaching in local schools.
NON-TECHNICAL SUMMARY: This award supports advanced computational and theoretical research engaging challenging problems inspired by materials with unusual properties that are believed to arise because of the interaction of electrons with each other is enhanced in comparison to electrons in other materials. The PI will use computers with parallel architectures and develop new algorithms with aim to understand how superconductivity, an electronic state of matter in which charge can flow without resistance, arises in high temperature superconductors; how the highest temperature at which magnetism appears on dilute magnetic semiconductors can be increased; and how strong electron-electron interactions lead to competing electronic states of matter in heavy Fermion materials. These problems lie at the intersection of fundamental understanding of the role of electron-electron interaction in the properties of complex materials and potential technological applications, diagnostic medicine and future spintronic devices that exploit not only the charge of the electron, but also another fundamental quantum mechanical property of the electron, its spin. The potential applications may have high impact from information technology and cyberinfrastructure to consumer electronics to defense and lie in the future. This research contributes to the intellectual foundations that will enable their realization and so contributes to keeping America competitive. This research also contributes to the cyberinfrastructure of the broader materials research community through the distribution of codes that result from the research.
Education is heavily integrated into this project, both through the support of graduate students and through the continued development of NSF sponsored courseware distributed through the PI's web site. Additional outreach is accomplished through the local "Physics by Inquiry" program which includes 6 weeks of professional development for in-service K-12 science teachers during the summer. Each graduate student supported by NSF funds spends two months during the summer working on these projects. This program is very successful, since it not only improves the teaching skills and marketability of our students, but also has a large impact on science teaching in local schools.
