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Center for Nonlinear Studies |
Physics has always thrived on an strong convection of ideas between the lab and the cosmos, yet each new generation of physicist is surprised as it rediscovers that discovery cuts between specialities. In this colloquium, I shall argue that recent discoveries across physics place us again at extraordinary juncture for a new convection of ideas.
I shall try to sketch my viewpoint from a condensed matter physics perspective, using examples drawn from my work and others. How some equations from string theory and gravity led us to discover a new kind of phase transition in two dimensional Heisenberg magnets; how a chance discussion with a particle physicist suggested how to understand heavy fermion superconductors in terms of "composite pairs" and how the discovery of Ising electrons in the "hidden order" material, URu2Si2 suggests a fundamentally new type of Landau order, "hastatic order".
Host: Tanmoy Das