Speaker
Prof.
Jan Zaanen
(Institituut Lorentz for Theoretical Physics, Leiden University)
Description
The central mystery in quantum matter is the general nature
of matter formed from fermions. The methods of many body
quantum physics fail and one can only rely on the
phenomenological Fermi-liquid and BCS theories. However,
in heavy fermion systems and cuprates one deals with non
Fermi-liquid quantum critical metals, and to understand the
superconductivity one needs to understand these normal
states first. Remarkably, it might well be that the
mathematics of string theory is capable of describing such
states of fermion matter. The AdS/CFT correspondence
translates this problem into an equivalent
general-relativity problem involving the propagation of
classical fields in an Anti-de-Sitter space-time with a
black hole in its center. This development started with the
demonstration that AdS/CFT predicts correctly the low
viscosity of the quark-gluon plasma of the Brookhaven heavy
ion collider. In 2007 it was realized that it could have
relevance to high Tc superconductors [1] but only last year
the focus shifted to the way AdS/CFT processes fermions,
creating much excitement: it appears that both emergent
heavy Fermi-liquids [2] and non Fermi-liquids can be
gravitationally encoded, as well as ‘holographic’
superconductors having suggestive traits in common with the
real life high Tc variety [3]. 1) J. Zaanen, Nature 448,
1000 (2007).,2) M. Cubrovic, J. Zaanen and K. Schalm ,
Science 325, 439 (2009).,3) J. Zaanen, Nature 462, 15 (2009).
Primary author
Prof.
Jan Zaanen
(Institituut Lorentz for Theoretical Physics, Leiden University)
