This award supports cooperative research in theoretical condensed matter physics to be conducted by Eduardo Fradkin of the University of Illinois at Urbana and Fidel Schaposnik of the University of La Plata in Argentina. The study of Fermionic models in condensed matter physics and field theory is an extremely active area of theoretical physics. Here, path-integral methods will be used to study the Kondo effect, resonating valence band models of superconductivity and antiferromagnetism and related field theoretical models. These techniques will be used to understand the consequences of symmetries, anomalies and topology as well as currently proposed models for high-temperature superconductivity and related field theories. The Physics Department at Illinois is one of the leading institutions in the U.S. in condensed matter physics, both theory and experiment. The Laboratory for Theoretical Physics at the University of La Plata is internationally recognized for contributions to the study of anomalies in field theory. These techniques are particularly useful in the field of high-temperature superconductors. The research interests of the two groups are complementary and the continued collaboration will develop further exchanges and cooperation between scientists, post-docs and students.
