### Charles Reynolds Distinguished Lecture

Friday, March 15, 2019
3:30pm – 4:30pm

Storrs Campus
GW 38, Physics Building

Dr. Andrew Millis, Center for Computational Quantum Physics, The Flatiron Institute and Department of Physics, Columbia University

Meeting Dirac’s Challenge: From Quantum Entanglement to Materials Theory

About 90 years ago, P. A. M. Dirac established the foundations of many-body quantum mechanics. Summarizing, he wrote The underlying physical laws necessary for the mathematical theory of a large part of physics and the whole of chemistry are thus completely known, and the difficulty is only that the exact application of these laws leads to equations much too complicated to be soluble. It therefore becomes desirable that approximate practical methods of applying quantum mechanics should be developed, which can lead to an explanation of the main features of complex atomic systems without too much computation.’’ Meeting Dirac’s challenge, in other words developing approximate practical methods of determining the properties of interacting many-electron systems, so as to predict e.g. which materials will be novel magnets or high transition temperature superconductors, is one of the grand challenges of modern science. Recent progress has been enabled by remarkable developments in ideas, algorithms and computational power. The interplay between theoretical materials science and research into the fundamental phenomenon of quantum mechanical entanglement, has been crucial to progress in both fields. In this talk I will give an overview of modern quantum many-body theory, outlining the difficulties, describing some recent successes, and presenting a vision for the future.

Friday, March 15, 2019 3:30 p.m. Gant Science Complex Physics, Room GW-38

Refreshments will be served prior to the talk at 2:30 in room GW-103

Contact:

Prof. A. Balatsky

Physics Department (primary), UConn Master Calendar