Macrocosm in the Microcosm:
Analogies between Materials and Particle Physics
One of the continuing, but remarkable themes in physics is that concepts and mathematical ideas are repeated in different contexts across vastly different scales of length and time. For instance, there are deep connections between the underlying equations that describe elementary particles and those that describe the physics of materials like superconductors and magnets. Examples abound. For instance, the Higgs mechanism that generates mass was first identified as the phenomenon that prevents magnetic fields from penetrating superconductors. The effects of electric and magnetic fields on a newly discovered class of materials called topological insulators is described by equations that may describe the dark matter that permeates the universe. We also find phenomena in materials that are “like” those of free space, but differ in essential ways. Echoing the multiverse of the string theorists, every material presents its own set of physical laws that may not have an analogy in the world of our experience. In this regard, insight into materials teaches us something deep about the space of possibilities of the kinds of physical laws that can exist.
N. Peter Armitage has been at Johns Hopkins University since 2006. He received his B.S. in Physics from Rutgers University in 1994 and his Ph.D. from Stanford University in 2002. He is a physicist whose research centers on material systems which exhibit coherent quantum effects at low temperatures, like superconductors and “quantum” magnetism. Dr. Armitage’s principal scientific interest is understanding how large ensembles of strongly interacting, but fundamentally simple particles like electrons in solids act collectively to exhibit complex emergent quantum phenomena.
He has been the recipient of a DARPA Young Faculty Award, an NSF Career Award, a Sloan Research Fellowship, was a three time Kavli Frontiers Fellow, the Spicer Award from the Stanford Synchrotron Radiation Laboratory, the McMillan Award from the University of Illinois and 2016 Genzel Prize. He was also the co-chair of the 2014 Gordon Research Conference in Correlated Electron Systems.
Introducer and Co-host: Jennifer Cano, Stony Brook University
