Abstract:-
Materials that surround us occur in different phases that make them useful to us. Everyday we come in contact with several sophisticated phases of matter beyond the simple classification of structural phases-- solids, liquids and gases. Most of them are different electronic phases such as electric metals (in wires) or insulators (that cover the wire); magnets or semiconductors in our smartphone, computers etc. Many more affect our life directly or indirectly and all of them are examples of quantum mechanics at work.
What are the governing principles that render shapes to different functional properties of these diverse phases of matter around us? Over the last century, we have made amazing progress to answer this question which has not only revolutionized our technology, but profoundly influenced the basic structure of the whole of Natural Sciences.
In this talk, I shall discuss why, and how such everyday experiences of different phases of matter give us a glimpse of some of the deep organisational principles of our nature. I shall also delve into some of the recent developments in the field and share with you the ongoing exciting hunt for novel phases of quantum matter.
About the Speaker:-
Subhro Bhattacharjee is interested in quantum many-body physics and currently a professor at the International Centre for Theoretical Sciences (ICTS-TIFR), Bengaluru. He obtained a Ph.D. in Physics from the Indian Institute of Science, Bengaluru. He was a fellow of University of Toronto & McMaster University, Canada (2011-2013) and Max Planck Institute for the Physics of Complex Systems, Dresden, Germany (2014-2015). His research interests include Magnetism, Topological phases of condensed matter, Physics of transition metal oxides, Strongly correlated metals and Many-body Chaos. He heads the Max Planck Partner Group on Strongly correlated systems at ICTS and was awarded the Young Associate of Indian Academy of Sciences (2016-2019).
