Items of interest

As I struggle with being swamped this semester, some news items:

• Scott Aaronson has a great summary/discussion about the forthcoming google/John Martinis result about quantum supremacy.  The super short version:  There is a problem called "random circuit sampling", where a sequence of quantum gate operations is applied to some number of quantum bits, and one would like to know the probability distribution of the outcomes.  Simulating this classically becomes very very hard as the number of qubits grows.  The google team apparently just implemented the actual problem directly using their 53-qubit machine, and could infer the probability distribution by directly sampling a large number of outcomes.   They could get the answer this way in 3 min 20 sec for a number of qubits where it would take the best classical supercomputer 10000 years to simulate.  Very impressive and certainly a milestone (though the paper is not yet published or officially released).  This has led to some fascinating semantic discussions with colleagues of mine about what we mean by computation.  For example, this particular situation feels a bit to me like comparing the numerical solution to a complicated differential equation (i.e. some Runge-Kutta method) on a classical computer with an analog computer using op-amps and R/L/C components.  Is the quantum computer here really solving a computational problem, or is it being used as an experimental platform to simulate a quantum system?  And what is the difference, and does it matter?  Either way, a remarkable achievement.  (I'm also a bit jealous that Scott routinely has 100+ comment conversations on his blog.)
• Speaking of computational solutions to complex problems.... Many people have heard about chaotic systems and why numerical solutions to differential equations can be fraught with peril due to, e.g., rounding errors.  However, I've seen two papers this week that show just how bad this can be.  This very good news release pointed me to this paper, where it shows that even using 64 bit precision doesn't save you from issues in some systems.  Also this blog post points to this paper, which shows that n-body gravitational simulations have all sorts of problems along these lines.  Yeow.
• SpaceX has assembled their mammoth sub-orbital prototype down in Boca Chica.  This is going to be used for test flights up to 22 km altitude, and landings.  I swear, it looks like something out of Tintin or The Conquest of Space.  Awesome.
• Time to start thinking about Nobel speculation.  Anyone?

DOE Experimental Condensed Matter PI Meeting, day 3 and wrapup

On the closing day of the PI meeting, some further points and wrap-up:

• I had previously missed work that shows that electric field can modulate magnetic exchange in ultrathin iron (overview).
• Ferroelectric layers can modulate transport in spin valves by altering the electronic energetic alignment at interfaces.  This can result in some unusual response (e.g., the sign of the magnetoresistance can flip with the sign of the current, implying spin-diode-like properties).
• Artificial spin ices are still cool model systems.  With photoelectron emission microscopy (PEEM), it's possible to image ultrathin, single-domain structures to reveal their mangetization noninvasively.  This means movies can be made showing thermal fluctuations of the spin ice constituents, revealing the topological character of the magnetic excitations in these systems.  
• Ultrathin oxide membranes mm in extent can be grown, detached from their growth substrates, and transferred or stacked.  When these membranes are really thin, it becomes difficult to nucleate cracks, allowing the membranes to withstand large strains (several percent!), opening up the study of strain effects on a variety of oxide systems.
• Controlled growth of stacked phthalocyanines containing transition metals can generate nice model systems for studying 1d magnetism, even using conventional (large-area) methods like vibrating sample magnetometry.
• In situ oxide MBE and ARPES, plus either vacuum annealing or ozone annealing, has allowed the investigation of the BSCCO superconducting phase diagram over the whole range of dopings, from severely underdoped to so overdoped that superconductivity is completely suppressed.  In the overdoped limit, analyzing the kink found in the band dispersion near the antinode, it seems superconductivity is suppressed at high doping because the coupling (to the mode that causes the kink) goes to zero at large doping.  
• It's possible to grow nice films of C60 molecules on Bi2Se3 substrates, and use ARPES to see the complicated multiple valence bands at work in this system.  Moreover, by doing measurements as a function of the polarization of the incoming light, the particular molecular orbitals contributing to those bands can be identified.
• Through careful control of conditions during vacuum filtration, it's possible to produce dense, locally crystalline films of aligned carbon nanotubes.  These have remarkable optical properties, and with the anisotropy of their electronic structure plus ultraconfined character, it's possible to get exciton polaritons in these into the ultrastrong coupling regime.

Overall this was a very strong meeting - the variety of topics in the program is impressive, and the work shown in the talks and posters was uniformly interesting and of high quality. 

DOE Experimental Condensed Matter PI Meeting, Day 2

Among the things I heard about today, as I wondered whether newly formed Tropical Storm Imelda would make my trip home a challenge:

• In "B20" magnetic compounds, where the crystal structure is chiral but lacks mirror or inversion symmetry, a phase can form under some circumstances that is a spontaneous lattice of skyrmions.  By adding disorder through doping, it is possible to un-pin that lattice.
• Amorphous cousins of those materials still show anomalous Hall effect (AHE), even though the usual interpretation these days of the AHE is as a consequence of Berry phase in momentum space that is deeply connected to having a lattice.  It's neat to see that some Berry physics survives even when the lattice does not.
• There is a lot of interest in coupling surface states of topological insulators to ferromagnets, including using spin-orbit torque to switch the magnetization direction of a ferromagnetic insulator.
• You could also try to switch the magnetization of \(\alpha-Fe_{2}O_{3}\) using spin-orbit torques, but watch out when you try to cram too much current through a 2 nm thick Pt film.
• The interlayer magnetic exchange in van der Waals magnets continues to be interesting and rich.
• Heck, you could look at several 2D materials with various kinds of reduced symmetry, to see what kinds of spin-orbit torques are possible.
• It's always fun to find a material where there are oscillations in magnetization with applied field even though the bulk is an insulator.
• Two-terminal devices made using (Weyl superconducting) MoTe2 show clear magnetoresistance signatures, indicating supercurrents carried along the material edges.
• By side-gating graphene structures hooked up to superconductors, you can also make a superconducting quantum intereference device using edge states of the fractional quantum Hall effect.
• In similar spirit, coupling a 2D topological insulator (1T'-WTe2) to a superconductor (NbSe2) means it's possible to use scanning tunneling spectroscopy to see induced superconducting properties in the edge state.
• Just in time, another possible p-wave superconductor.
• In a special stack sandwiching a TI between two magnetic TI layers, it's possible to gate the system to break inversion symmetry, and thus tune between quantum anomalous Hall and "topological Hall" response.
• Via a typo on a slide, I learned of the existence of the Ohion, apparently the smallest quantized amount of Ohio.

DOE experimental condensed matter PI meeting, day 1

The first day of the DOE ECMP PI meeting was very full, including two poster sessions.  Here are a few fun items:

• Transition metal dichalcogenides (TMDs) can have very strongly bound excitons, and if two different TMDs are stacked, you can have interlayer excitons, where the electron and hole reside in different TMD layers, perhaps separated by a layer or two of insulating hBN.  Those interlayer excitons can have long lifetimes, undergo Bose condensation, and have interesting optical properties.  See here, for example.   
• Heterojunctions of different TMDs can produce moire lattices even with zero relative twist, and the moire coupling between the layers can strongly affect the optical properties via the excitons.
• Propagating plasmons in graphene can have surprisingly high quality factors (~ 750), and combined with their strong confinement have interesting potential.
• You can add AlAs quantum wells to the list of materials systems in which it is possible to have very clean electronic transport and see fractional quantum Hall physics, which is a bit different because of the valley degeneracy in the AlAs conduction band (that can be tuned by strain).
• And you can toss in WSe2 in there, too - after building on this and improving material quality even further.
• There continues to be progress in trying to interface quantum Hall edge states with superconductors, with the end goal of possible topological quantum computing.  A key question is understanding how the edge states undergo Andreev processes at superconducting contacts.
• Application of pressure can take paired quantum Hall states (like those at \(\nu = 5/2, 7/2\)) and turn them into unpaired nematic states, a kind of quantum phase transition.  
• With clever (and rather involved) designs, it is possible to make high quality interferometers for fractional quantum Hall edge states, setting the stage for detailed studies of exotic anyons.

DOE Experimental Condensed Matter PI meeting, 2019

The US Department of Energy's Basic Energy Sciences component of the Office of Science funds a lot of basic scientific research, and for the last decade or so had a tradition of regular gatherings of their funded principal investigators for a number of programs.  Every two years there has been a PI meeting for the Experimental Condensed Matter Physics program, and this year's meeting starts tomorrow.

These meetings are very educational (at least for me) and, because of their modest size, a much better networking setting than large national conferences.  In past years I've tried to write up brief highlights of the meetings (for 2017, see a, b, c; for 2015 see a, b, c; for 2013 see a, b).   I will try to do this again; the format of the meeting has changed to include more poster sessions, which makes summarizing trickier, but we'll see.

update:  Here are my write-ups for day 1, day 2, and day 3.

Faculty position at Rice - Astronomy

Faculty position in Astronomy at Rice University

The Department of Physics and Astronomy at Rice University invites applications for a tenure-track faculty position in astronomy in the general field of galactic star formation and planet formation, including exoplanet characterization. We seek an outstanding theoretical, observational, or computational astronomer whose research will complement and extend existing activities in these areas within the department. In addition to developing an independent and vigorous research program, the successful applicant will be expected to teach, on average, one undergraduate or graduate course each semester, and contribute to the service missions of the department and university. The department expects to make the appointment at the assistant professor level. A Ph.D. in astronomy/astrophysics or related field is required.

Applications for this position must be submitted electronically at http://jobs.rice.edu/postings/21236. Applicants will be required to submit the following: (1) cover letter; (2) curriculum vitae; (3) statement of research; (4) teaching statement; (5) PDF copies of up to three publications; and (6) the names, affiliations, and email addresses of three professional references. We will begin reviewing applications December 1, 2019. To receive full consideration, all application materials must be received by January 10, 2020. The appointment is expected to begin in July, 2020.

Rice University is an Equal Opportunity Employer with a commitment to diversity at all levels, and considers for employment qualified applicants without regard to race, color, religion, age, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national or ethnic origin, genetic information, disability, or protected veteran status. We encourage applicants from diverse backgrounds to apply.

Faculty position at Rice - Theoretical Biological Physics

Faculty position in Theoretical Biological Physics at Rice University

As part of the Vision for the Second Century (V2C2), which is focused on investments in research excellence, Rice University seeks faculty members, preferably at the assistant professor level, starting as early as July 1, 2020, in all areas of theoretical biological physics. Successful candidates will lead dynamic, innovative, and independent research programs supported by external funding, and will excel in teaching at the graduate and undergraduate levels, while embracing Rice’s culture of excellence and diversity.

This search will consider applicants from all science and engineering disciplines. Ideal candidates will pursue research with strong intellectual overlap with physics, chemistry, biosciences, bioengineering, chemical and biomolecular engineering, or other related disciplines. Applicants pursuing all styles of theory and computation integrating the physical and life sciences are encouraged to apply.

For full details and to apply, please visit https://jobs.rice.edu/postings/21170.  Applicants should please submit the following materials: (1) cover letter, including the names and contact information for three references, (2) curriculum vitae, (3) research statement, and (4) statement of teaching philosophy. Application review will commence no later than October 15, 2019 and continue until the position is filled. Candidates must have a PhD or equivalent degree and outstanding potential in research and teaching. We particularly encourage applications from women and members of historically underrepresented groups who bring diverse cultural experiences and who are especially qualified to mentor and advise members of our diverse student population.

Rice University, located in Houston, Texas, is an Equal Opportunity Employer with commitment to diversity at all levels, and considers for employment qualified applicants without regard to race, color, religion, age, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national or ethnic origin, genetic information, disability, or protected veteran status.

Big questions about condensed matter (part 3)

More questions asked by Ross McKenzie's son about the culture/history of condensed matter physics:

3.  What are the most interesting historical anecdotes?  What are the most significant historical events?  Who were the major players?

The first couple of these are hard to address in anything resembling an unbiased way.  For events that happened before I was in the field, I have to rely on stories I've read or things I've heard.  Certainly the discovery of superconductivity by Onnes is a good example - where they thought that they had an experimental problem with their wiring, until they realized that their voltmeter reading dropping to zero (trying to measure the voltage drop across some mercury in the presence of a known current) happened at basically the same temperature every time.  (Pretty good for 1911!).  Major experimental results very often have fun story components.  From my thesis adviser, I'd heard lots of stories about the discovery of superfluidity in 3He, including plugging a leaky vacuum flange using borax; thinking up the experiment while recovering from a broken leg skiing accident; the wee-hour phone call to the adviser.   He also told me a story about this paper, where he and Gerry Dolan came up with a very clever way to see tiny deviations away from a mostly linear current-voltage curve, an observation connected with weak localization that paved the way for a lot of mesoscopic physics work.   

There are fun theory stories, too.  Bob Laughlin figuring out the theory of the fractional quantum Hall effect while stuck in a trailer at Livermore because his clearance paperwork hadn't come through yet.

Other stories I've read in books.  Strong recommendations for Crystal Fire; the less popular/more scholarly Out of the Crystal Maze.  Ohl's discovery of the photovoltaic effect in silicon.  The story about how Bell Labs and IBM researchers may or may not have traded hints poolside in Las Vegas about how to get field-effect transistors really working.  Shockley's inability to manage people eventually resulting in Silicon Valley.  

These aren't necessarily the best anecdotes, but they have elements of interest.  I'm sure there are many out there who could tell fun stories.

As for the major players, it seems that everyone mentioned on Prof. McKenzie's post and in the comments are theorists.  That seems limiting.  It's fair to talk about theorists if you're concentrating on theoretical developments, but experimentalists have often opened up whole areas.  Onnes liquefied helium and discovered superconductivity.  Laue invented x-ray diffraction.  Brattain made transistors.  Nick Holonyak was an inventor of the light emitting diode, which has been revolutionary.   Binnig and Rohrer invented the STM.  Bednorz and Muller discovered the cuprates.  

Big questions about condensed matter (part 2)

Continuing, another question asked by Ross McKenzie's son:

2. Scientific knowledge changes with time. Sometimes long-accepted ``facts''  and ``theories'' become overturned? What ideas and results are you presenting that you are almost absolutely certain of? What might be overturned?

I think this question is framed interestingly.  Physics in general and condensed matter in particular is a discipline where the overturning of long-accepted ideas has often really meant a clearer appreciation and articulation about the limits of validity of models, rather than a wholesale revision of understanding. 

For example, the Mermin-Wagner theorem is often mentioned as showing that one cannot have true two-dimensional crystals (this would be a breaking of continuous translational symmetry).  However, the existence of graphene and other atomically thin systems like transition metal dichalcogenides, and the existence of magnetic order in some of those materials, are experimentally demonstrated.  That doesn't mean that Mermin-Wagner is mathematically incorrect.  It means that one must be very careful in defining what is meant by "truly two-dimensional". 

There are many things in condensed matter that are as "absolutely certain" as anything gets in science.  The wave nature of x-rays, electrons, and neutrons plus the spatial periodicity of matter in crystals leads to clear diffraction patterns.  That same spatial periodicity strongly influences the electronic properties of crystals (Bloch's theorem, labeling of states by some wavevector-like parameter \(\mathbf{k}\), some energy dependence of those states \(E(\mathbf{k})\)).   More broadly, there are phases of matter that can be classified by symmetries and topology, with distinct macroscopic properties.  The macroscopic phases that are seen in equilibrium are those that correspond to the largest number of microscopic configurations subject to any overall constraints (that's the statistical physics basis for thermodynamics).  Amazingly, knowing the ground state electronic density of a system everywhere means its possible in principle to calculate just about everything about the ground state.

Leaving those aside, asking what might be overturned is a bit like asking where we might find either surprises or mistakes in the literature.  Sometimes seemingly established wisdom does get upset.  One recent example:  For a couple of decades, it's been thought that Sr₂RuO₄ is likely a spin-triplet superconductor, where the electron pairs are p-wave paired (have net orbital angular momentum), and is an electronic analog to the A phase of  superfluid ³He.  Recent results suggest that this is not correct, and that the early evidence for this is not seen in new measurements.   There are probably more things like this out there, but it's hard to speculate.  Bear in mind, though, that science is supposed to work like this.  In the long run, the truth will out.

Big questions about condensed matter physics (pt 1)

Ross McKenzie, blogger of Condensed Concepts, is working on a forthcoming book, a Very Short Introduction about condensed matter physics.  After reading some sample chapters, his son posed some questions about the field, and Prof. McKenzie put forward some of his preliminary answers here.  These are fun, thought-provoking topics, and I regret being so busy writing other things that I haven't had a chance to think about these as much as I'd like.  Still, here are some thoughts.

1. What do you think is the coolest or most exciting thing that CMP has discovered? 

Tricky.  There are some things that are very intellectually profound and cool to the initiated that would not strike an average person as cool or exciting.  The fractional quantum Hall effect was completely surprising.  I heard a story about Dan Tsui looking at the data coming in on a strip chart recorder (Hall voltage as a function of time as the magnetic field was swept), roughly estimating the magnetic field from the graph with the span of his fingers, realizing that they were seeing a Hall plateau that seemed to imply a charge of 1/3 e, and saying, jokingly, "Quarks!"  In fact, there really are fractionally charged excitations in that system.  That's very cool, and but not something any non-expert would appreciate. 

Prof. McKenzie votes for superconductivity, and that's definitely up there.  In some ways, superfluidity is even wilder.  Kamerlingh Onnes, the first to liquefy helium and cool it below the superfluid transition, somehow missed discovering superfluidity, which had to wait for Kapitsa and independently Allen in 1937.  Still, it is very weird - fluid flowing without viscosity through tiny pores, and climbing walls (!).   While it's less useful than superconductivity, you can actually see its weird properties readily with the naked eye.