Topological Materials and Fundamental Physics

The last few years have witnessed great advancements in the science and engineering of systems with unconventional band structures, beginning with graphene and topological insulators. Recent experiments have gone further inrealizing axionic and chiral density wave excitations in related 3Dtopological materials, such as the Weyl semi-metals(TaSe4)2Iand NbP. The common feature of these systems isthe appearance of gapless fermionic chiral excitations, which for the first time provide condensed matter realizationsof basic principles of Quantum Field Theory (QFT), such as the chiral anomaly and the axion,hypothesized four decades ago by Weinberg andWilczekto solve the strong charge conjugation-parity (CP)problem of Quantum Chromo-Dynamics (QCD). The advent of these new materialsmakespossible thestudy of these effects in the laboratory for the first time,thus attracting the interest of both condensed matter and high energyphysicistsinternationally.The potential technological applications of these materials are far-reaching,from more energy-efficient microelectronic components and new magneticstorage media, to better catalysts, improved thermoelectric converters, andhigh-temperature superconductors. Their topological features also makethese materials more robust to the effects of disorder and decoherence,which may enable the design of quantum computers, with more qubits and lesserror correctionnecessary.  These materials may even prove useful as detectors forthe elusive dark matter believed to be pervading ouruniverse, for which the Weinberg-Wilzcek axion itself remains a possible candidate.

Topics: 

• Topological Materials, Dirac/Weyl Semimetals
• Chiral Anomalies & Axions in Particle Physics and Materials
• Collective Chiral Density Waves and Emergent Axion-like Excitations 
• Experimental Techniques: Magnetoresistivity, THz Measurements
• New Ideas for Dark Matter Detectors
• New Materials for Quantum Computers