Quantum Many-Body Physics (QMP)

Leader: Dr. Tech. Ari Harju

The field of nanoscale two-dimensional quantum physics forms an interface between hard-core theoretical physics and traditional condensed matter physics. The lowered dimensionality both enhances correlation effects – in many cases necessitating the use and development of nonperturbative methods – and allows for powerful analytical techniques such as bosonization and Bethe ansatz. Recent advances in experimental techniques have promoted strongly correlated low-dimensional models from being mere toy models of particle physics into systems of experimental interest. Low-dimensional nanosystems lie in an interesting crossing point of theoretically inspiring and fundamentally novel findings (e.g. fractional quantum Hall effect) and technological applications (e.g. quantum-dot based devices).

The goal of our research is to develop and apply accurate computational many-particle methods for various quantum systems. We hope that the results obtained give us enough information to understand the underlying principles in different many-body systems.

We are part of the Helsinki Institute of Physics (HIP) . Our project on “Low Dimensional Quantum Physics” is part of the theory programme.

We also collaborate with the Nokia Research Center on NanoSciences.

Phase diagram of a coupled quantum dot and ring, copyright Eero Tölö