|
MIT Physics Lecture Series:b The Sociology of Electrons: What Happens When Electrons Interact?
Karen Michaeli - Pappalardo Fellow in Physics: 2010-2013
Wed Jan 12, 01:30-02:30pm, 6-120
No enrollment limit, no advance sign up
Participants welcome at individual sessions (series)
What would our lives be like without magnets? Devices like computers and telephones rely on magnetic components. Quantum mechanically, magnetism arises from interactions between many electrons.
In the last century, a plethora of fascinating phenomena emerging from interactions between electrons, have been discovered. A particularly interesting example is superconductivity. Here, electrons that usually repel each other bind into pairs. The paired electrons form a new phase where electric current flows with zero resistance. Besides pairing, electrons in a strong magnetic field can also split into multiple new particles. This is known as the fractional quantum Hall effect, which has attracted much attention as a promising route to building a quantum computer.
Karen Michaeli will present these interesting phases of matter and explain the physics behind them.
Contact: Nancy Boyce, 4-315, 253-4461, nboyce@mit.edu
Sponsor: Physics
Latest update: 06-Dec-2010
|
|
