In the past decade, there have been some amazing developments in the field of condensed matter physics. Many of these developments can be traced back to ideas that first originated in the context of high energy and nuclear physics. Of particular interest are the observation of "magnetic" monopoles in frustrated pyrochlore magnets and artificial "spin ice" lattices, magneto-electric monopoles and anapoles in multiferroics (exhibiting axion electrodynamics), and skyrmions in helical magnets and engineered magnetic nanostructures. In addition, there has been some recent evidence of Majorana modes in topological superconductors, which are of potential interest from a quantum computing perspective. Finally, given the recent excitement concerning the Higgs, Higgs modes are prevalent in condensed matter physics, and have been dramatically visualized in recent pump probe experiments in charge density wave metals.

Argonne Physics Division Colloquium Schedule