KTH/Nordita/SU seminar in Theoretical Physics

An emergent Fermi Liquid from a strongly coupled quantum critical point

by Koenraad Schalm (Leiden University, The Netherlands)

Europe/Stockholm
FA31

FA31

Description
A central problem in quantum condensed matter physics is the critical theory governing the zero temperature quantum phase transition between strongly renormalized Fermi-liquids as found in heavy fermion intermetallics and pos- sibly high Tc superconductors. We present here results showing that the math- ematics of string theory is capable of describing such fermionic quantum criti- cal states. Using the Anti-de-Sitter/Conformal Field Theory (AdS/CFT) corre- spondence to relate fermionic quantum critical fields to a gravitational prob- lem, we compute the spectral functions of fermions in the field theory. By in- creasing the fermion density away from the relativistic quantum critical point, a state emerges with all the features of the Fermi-liquid.