This CAREER award supports integrated research, education, and outreach activities in theoretical condensed matter physics. The research focuses on materials which exhibit Dirac, or related, criticality. The research has three thrusts: 1.) explore the effects of temperature, the electron-electron interaction, and disorder on the transport scaling functions of systems where low-energy excitations behave as massless Dirac fermions; 2.) examine the effects of interaction and temperature on the electronic ordering of Dirac and related materials, both near weak and strong coupling instabilities; 3.) explore the physics of materials where Dirac fermions arise due to an onset of many-body ordering and understand their coupling to magnetic fields and to collective excitations near phase transitions.
The educational component of this proposal involves developing new wiki-based learning tools at both the undergraduate and graduate levels. The PI will utilize collaborative wiki-textbook writing as a tool for building a firm knowledge structure and for reinforcing students' conceptual grasp of the subject. At the completion of the teaching component of the proposal, the PI plans to publish the findings in a pedagogical press, expecting that this interactive learning model will have impact across academia. Education and outreach efforts will be linked to the Florida State University--National High Magnetic Field Laboratory Center for Integrated Research and Learning. The PI will develop a wiki-component for the SuperNet, an educational network connecting scientists and teachers with a shared purpose of getting students interested in and excited about science. The goal of the network is to establish new learning communities of scientists, teachers, and students who jointly explore physics through inquiry-based, hands-on activities.
NON-TECHNICAL SUMMARY
This CAREER award supports integrated research, education, and outreach activities in fundamental theoretical condensed matter physics. In nature, there appear to be no known elementary particles that are charged and massless. Photons, the quanta of light for example, are massless particles, but they have no electric charge. Recently, condensed matter physicists have uncovered a special class of materials whose charge carrying excitations behave as if they are massless particles. The electronic excitations in a two-dimensional, single atom thick sheet of carbon, known as graphene, behave like massless particles. Through the remarkable physics and chemistry of materials, the properties of massless and charged particles can be explored. These materials may be useful for future electronics device applications due to the properties of these intriguing particles. The PI aims to develop and use advanced theoretical techniques to further unlock the mysteries of graphene and to further understand the consequences of the unusual behavior of electrons in this and related materials.
The educational component of this proposal involves developing new wiki-based learning tools at both the undergraduate and graduate levels. The PI will utilize collaborative wiki-textbook writing as a tool for building a firm knowledge structures and for reinforcing students' conceptual grasp of the subject. At the completion of the teaching component of the proposal, the PI plans to publish the findings in a pedagogical press, expecting that this interactive learning model will have impact across academia. Education and outreach efforts will be linked to the Florida State University--National High Magnetic Field Laboratory Center for Integrated Research and Learning. The PI will develop a wiki-component for the SuperNet, an educational network connecting scientists and teachers with a shared purpose of getting students interested in and excited about science. The goal of the network is to establish new learning communities of scientists, teachers, and students who jointly explore physics through inquiry-based, hands-on activities.
