Solving the Mott Problem

Event Date:
2025-10-02T16:00:00
2025-10-02T17:00:00
Event Location:
HENN 201
Speaker:
Philip Phillips, Urbana-Champaign
Related Upcoming Events:
Department Colloquia
Intended Audience:
Everyone
Local Contact:

Georg Rieger (rieger@phas.ubc.ca) and Brett Gladman (gladman@astro.ubc.ca)

All are welcome to this event!

Event Information:

Abstract: 

Discovered in 1986, high temperature superconductivity in cuprates still remains an unsolved grand challenge problem. At the heart of this problem is a departure from the standard theory of metals. Questions as basic as the nature of the propagating degrees of freedom persist. The central problem is that cuprates start off their lives as Mott insulators. In this talk, I will explain the Mott problem and show that an overlooked symmetry in the standard theory of metals leads to a set of exactly solvable models for the underlying Mott problem. The nature of the superconducting state will be discussed.

Bio: 

Professor Philip Phillips received his bachelor's degree from Walla Walla College in 1979, and his Ph.D. from the University of Washington in 1982. After a Miller Fellowship at Berkeley, he joined the faculty at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (1984-1993). Professor Phillips came to the University of Illinois in 1993.

Professor Phillips is a theoretical condensed matter physicist who has an international reputation for his work on transport in disordered and strongly correlated low-dimensional systems. He is the inventor of various models for Bose metals, Mottness, and the random dimer model, which exhibits extended states in one dimension, thereby representing an exception to the localization theorem of Anderson's.

His research focuses sharply on explaining current experimental observations that challenge the standard paradigms of electron transport and magnetism in solid state physics. Departures from paradigms tell us that there is much to learn. Such departures are expected to occur in the presence of strong-electron interactions, disorder, and in the vicinity of zero-temperature quantum critical points. The common question posed by experiments that probe such physics is quite general. Simply, how do strong Coulomb interactions and disorder conspire to mediate zero-temperature states of matter? It is precisely the strongly interacting electron problem or any strongly coupled problem for that matter, such as quark confinement, that represents one of the yet-unconquered frontiers in physics. Understanding the physics of strong coupling is Phillips' primary focus.
 

Learn More: 

Add to Calendar 2025-10-02T16:00:00 2025-10-02T17:00:00 Solving the Mott Problem Event Information: Abstract:  Discovered in 1986, high temperature superconductivity in cuprates still remains an unsolved grand challenge problem. At the heart of this problem is a departure from the standard theory of metals. Questions as basic as the nature of the propagating degrees of freedom persist. The central problem is that cuprates start off their lives as Mott insulators. In this talk, I will explain the Mott problem and show that an overlooked symmetry in the standard theory of metals leads to a set of exactly solvable models for the underlying Mott problem. The nature of the superconducting state will be discussed. Bio:  Professor Philip Phillips received his bachelor's degree from Walla Walla College in 1979, and his Ph.D. from the University of Washington in 1982. After a Miller Fellowship at Berkeley, he joined the faculty at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (1984-1993). Professor Phillips came to the University of Illinois in 1993. Professor Phillips is a theoretical condensed matter physicist who has an international reputation for his work on transport in disordered and strongly correlated low-dimensional systems. He is the inventor of various models for Bose metals, Mottness, and the random dimer model, which exhibits extended states in one dimension, thereby representing an exception to the localization theorem of Anderson's. His research focuses sharply on explaining current experimental observations that challenge the standard paradigms of electron transport and magnetism in solid state physics. Departures from paradigms tell us that there is much to learn. Such departures are expected to occur in the presence of strong-electron interactions, disorder, and in the vicinity of zero-temperature quantum critical points. The common question posed by experiments that probe such physics is quite general. Simply, how do strong Coulomb interactions and disorder conspire to mediate zero-temperature states of matter? It is precisely the strongly interacting electron problem or any strongly coupled problem for that matter, such as quark confinement, that represents one of the yet-unconquered frontiers in physics. Understanding the physics of strong coupling is Phillips' primary focus.  Learn More:  About Philip from his University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign faculty webpage: Philip W Phillips | Physics | Illinois About cuprates: Cuprate - an overview | ScienceDirect Topics About the Mott Problem: Mott problem - Wikipedia About magnetism in solid state physics - read this article, "SOLID STATE PHYSICS, PART III: Magnetic Properties of Solids", by M. S. Dresselhaus": 6.732-pt3.pdf Event Location: HENN 201