This award supports theoretical and computational research, and education on materials and systems relevant to the environment and where strong correlations play an important role. The PI aims to address problems of fundamental importance that bear on the quest for a sustainable future.
The research is centered on three problems that arise in the context of the environment: modeling actinide compounds and complexes in the environment, exploring a new approach to harvest solar energy, and developing statistical methods to describe anisotropic and inhomogeneous fluid flows known as "macroturbulence." Each focus system is characterized by strong correlations, with the latter two involving systems that are driven far from equilibrium.
Actinides compounds and complexes will be modeled in ways that account for strong correlations between the f-electrons, with the goal of developing the ability to make first-principles predictions of properties of actinides such as uranium and plutonium in the nuclear fuel cycle and as waste products in the environment.
High-frequency rectification at junctions of doped Mott insulators will be studied analytically and through numerical simulation. Diodes made of these materials may be able to operate up to optical frequencies, enabling nanoscale rectenna designs that could directly convert the electromagnetic field of sunlight to direct current. The conversion mechanism represents a mechanism that is fundamentally differs from the mechanism underlying traditional solar cell technology.
Macroturbulent Jets in anisotropic and inhomogenous fluid flows will be described statistically by methods that forgo standard approaches based upon accumulation of statistics during numerical simulation. Instead the flow statistics will be captured directly by non-equilibrium statistical mechanics through approximations that are inspired by quantum many-body theory, and that can be systematically improved.
The research provides an interdisciplinary environmental context for training students and postdocs. The project will provide a cross-disciplinary learning experience for students at various levels, enhancing human resources for theoretical and computational condensed matter physics by training students and postdocs in cutting-edge methods of quantum many-body and non-equilibrium statistical physics in problems with potential impact on sustatinability. The PI will continue to draw the community's interest to solving problems that would lead to contributions to a sustainable future through the organization of workshops and conferences, and writing pedagogical articles.
NONTECHNICAL SUMMARY This award supports theoretical and computational research, and education on materials and systems relevant to the environment. The PI aims to address problems of fundamental import that bear on the quest for a sustainable future. The research will focus on three problems: 1.) developing a computational method of improved accuracy for chemical compounds involving uranium and other atoms classified as actinides in the periodic table, 2.) investigating a key component, a diode, that can operate at sufficiently high frequency to enable a way to harvest energy from sunlight that operates on different fundamental principles than a solar cell and is potentially more efficient, 3.) adapting statistical methods used to describe systems of many interacting electrons to understand the fundamental principles that underlie weather and climate.
The research provides an interdisciplinary environmental context for training students and postdocs. The project will provide a cross-disciplinary learning experience for students at various levels, enhancing human resources for theoretical and computational condensed matter physics by training students and postdocs in cutting-edge methods of quantum many-body and non-equilibrium statistical physics in problems with potential impact on sustainability. The PI will continue to draw the community's interest to solving problems that would lead to contributions to a sustainable future through the organization of workshops and conferences, and writing pedagogical articles.
