Abstract:
The breakthrough discovery of high temperature superconductivity in the cuprates more than two decades ago opened a new chapter in strongly correlated electron physics. While the parent Mott insulators and the strongly over-doped standard metallic cuprates are well understood, important issues controlling the evolution with doping between these two limits, remain to be resolved. Progress in sample preparation and experimental techniques continues to bring new insights and surprises. The recent advances will be reviewed with emphasis on Anderson’s Resonant Valence Bond approach and the challenging task to construct a consistent theory describing all the many anomalous properties.
About the Speaker:
T.M. Rice is a Professor at ETH-Zurich, Chair of Advisory Committee of Center of Theoretical and Computational Physics at HKU, a University Distinguished Visiting Scholar at HKU. He received his Ph.D. at Cambridge, and worked at the Bell Laboratory as the Theory Group leader before he moved to ETH in early of 1980’s. He is a member of the US National Academy of Sciences. His primary interest has been in condensed matter physics. He received numerous honors including Bardeen Prize and European Physics Society’s HP Award.
Coffee and tea will be served 20 minutes prior to the seminar.