Chiral critical matter

Date

Tuesday, February 6, 2024
15:00 - 17:00

Abstract

Liquid crystals are fascinating materials -- quintessential condensed matter exhibiting an array of complex phases of fundamental scientific interest and at the heart of liquid crystal display revolution. I will take the audience on a bit of a rollercoaster ride, pedagogically discussing a recently discovered exotic liquid crystal state, the "heliconical nematic", that exhibits a long sought-after spontaneous chiral symmetry breaking. I will then explain how low-energy modes of the heliconical nematic, and many other chiral soft and hard matter states (e.g., quantum Hall stripes, FFLO pair-density wave superconductors, spin-orbit coupled and frustrated superfluids and frustrated helical magnets) can be understood as originating from an emergent Higgs mechanism, thereby "violating" the conventional G/H Goldstone mode counting. Finally I will show that such states exhibit universal critical fluctuations extending throughout the low-temperature "critical phase”.

Organiser

Condensed Matter Theory group

Venue

UvA - Faculty of Science

Room number

L0.06

Category

Group Seminar

Topics

condensed matter theory

Speakers

Leo Radzihovsky (U. Colorado)