Topological phases of matter: from one to two dimensions


Eddy Ardonne

KTH, Stockholm


Wednesday, 11 May 2011, 11:00
Seminar room F

Abstract:
Topological phases of matter have attracted much attention recently, via the discovery of `topological insulators'. In this talk, I will give a quick overview of topological phases of matter, starting from the quantum Hall effect, discovered three decades ago. Phase transitions between topological phases do not fall in the usual Landau paradigm of phase transitions. One way to gain inside in such phase transitions is via the study of one-dimensional systems of interacting (non-abelian) anyons. I will explain the physics of these one-dimensional chains, and explain how they can be used to gain insight in the important question of topological phase transitions.