Complex Adaptive Matter
Greg Boebinger
Los Alamos National Laboratory
MST-NHMFL, MS E536
505-665-8092
505-665-4311
Complex Adaptive Matter (CAM) describes a wide range of research in nonlinear systems, physics, biology, and a number of other traditional disciplines, which shares a common behavior: the system under study responds dramatically to a relatively small change of applied conditions. I believe that there is great potential for a particularly strong synergy between an Institute of Complex Adaptive Matter and the National High Magnetic Field Laboratory as the definition of CAM accurately circumscribes the traditional research portfolio of the National High Magnetic Field Laboratory (NHMFL).
The large infrastructure required to operate the pulsed magnets at the NHMFL often gives the impression that intense pulsed magnetic fields are a rather heavy experimental ěhammerî. In fact, magnetic fields are often a quite gentle perturbation of the electron system under study, since 100 tesla corresponds typically to only 15 meV of electron spin-flip or orbital energy. This makes magnetic fields particularly valuable for studying correlated electron systems, systems whose complex behaviors are not describable by traditional theoretical approaches based on weakly interacting quasiparticles. Since the energy scales for the onset of correlated electron behavior are typically ten to a few hundred kelvins, correlated electron systems often exhibit complicated phase diagrams in the presence of magnetic fields. Not infrequently, pulsed magnetic fields exceed the threshold required for a transition to a dramatically new state of the correlated electrons. The fractional quantum Hall effect, for which the 1998 Nobel Prize was awarded, is one particularly well understood example of this strong response to magnetic field. High-temperature superconductivity is an example of a system which is not yet well understood.
The National High Magnetic Field Laboratory in Los Alamos has focussed its resources to date primarily on the development of uniquely powerful pulsed magnets. We are now in the midst of a multiyear process of developing and diversifying our scientific research program. This effort involves establishing stronger collaborations with colleagues at universities and within other groups at Los Alamos National Laboratory. A primary motivating factor for establishing an Institute for Complex Adaptive Matter is the growing sense, which I share, that by bringing together previously disparate scientific research efforts, we will discover common threads and develop fruitful cross-fertilization. As Director of the Pulsed Field Facility of the National High Magnetic Field Laboratory, I enthusiastically support the development of research on Complex Adaptive Matter.
Exploratory discussions during the workshop might include short, informal summary presentations of each individualís understanding of Complex Adaptive Matter as it applies to his/her own discipline. The operating principles and procedures of the proposed Institute should also be discussed. I might also suggest discussions which focus on the minimal necessary conditions for (and the general situations in which one might observe) patterns generated in magnetic systems, Kondo-like scattering, or the physics of low-dimensional spin systems. As for a topic which might be of particular value to high magnetic field research, I would welcome a discussion on the development of calculational tools which would become useful once high magnetic fields have broken down a zero-magnetic-field band structure.