This US-Argentina Cooperative Science Program award will support the collaboration of Eduardo Fradkin of the University of Illinois and Fidel Schaposnik of the University of La Plata, Argentina. The project aims to investigate fermionic models in condensed matter physics and field theory. The researchers will use non-perturbative methods to study universal properties of the wave functionals of conformally invariant (critical) fermionic models. They will also consider the Multichannel Kondo model, including the possible existence of states with fractional quantum numbers in Kondo-like systems. The research has possible applications to one-dimensional systems, superconductivity, the fractional quantum Hall effect, and the Kondo problem. The US side has expertise in theoretical and experimental condensed matter physics, as well as numerical simulations. The Argentine side has theoretical expertise, particularly in quantum field theory, as well as methodology for conducting projects in which fermions are strongly coupled.
