This is a CAREER grant to a young faculty member which combines research and education. The theoretical project will address two major problems in the phenomenology of high temperature superconductors: (i) the equilibrium and nonequilibrium properties of the vortex liquid, with the goals of the derivation of the currently assumed hydrodynamic description, and elucidation of the vortex states, instabilities and dissipation in the presence of currents parallel to the applied magnetic field; (ii) the freezing transition of the vortex liquid into a solid phase, which will consist of the development of a new mean-field description that explicitly shows the energetic tendency of the vortices to order into a lattice and which is generalizable to including the effects of fluctuations. These research efforts will be complemented by the educational component through new course development, and incorporation of students at all levels into research. %%% This is a CAREER grant t a young faculty member for a program which combines research and education. The theoretical research will focus on the properties of unique states of matter which occur in the high temperature superconductors. The educational component will focus on course development and integration of students at all levels into the research program.
