Konwersatorium im. Leopolda Infelda

Streszczenie:

The 2016 Nobel Prize in Physics was awarded to David J. Thouless, F. Duncan M. Haldane, and J. Michael Kosterlitz "for theoretical discoveries of topological phase transitions and topological phases of matter".
The Nobel Committee does not mention a specific discovery, but rather refers to a collection of groundbreaking results, which lay at the foundation of our current understanding of topological phases in quantum matter.
We aim at presenting a short account of the historical context and a pedagogical explanation of the original results associated with the names of Nobel 2016 Laureates. In our talk we will discuss:
1) phase transitions in two dimensions triggered by vortices,
2) the gapped phase of spin one chains and 3) the topological invariant underlining the physics of the quantum Hall effect.
We believe the intellectual achievements of this year's Laureates are breathtaking for their own sake, even without direct reference to applications. "It's very difficult to know whether something is useful or not, but one can know that it's exciting" -- as summarized by Haldane in the first Nobel interview.

Referat zostanie wygłoszony w ramach wspólnego posiedzenia konwersatoriów im. J. Pniewskiego i L. Infelda.

Zapraszamy!

Jan Kalinowski, Jerzy Kijowski, Czesław Radzewicz, Wojciech Satuła, Janusz Skalski