Scalettar-Zimanyi Group
Theoretical
Condensed-Matter
Physics
Research Interests
Our research centers on the fundamental question in condensed-matter
physics: how does a system of many, strongly-interacting electrons tend
to organize itself when subjected to external influences? Under certain
conditions they can order magnetically while under others they may
have no magnetic
order. They can exhibit various transport properties, illustrated for
example by their conducting properties: superconducting, metallic,
insulating. Some transitions between phases of a material occur
at a finite temperature, as the temperature is varied from say above
to below the transition temperature, while others (quantum
phase transitions) occur at zero temperature as parameters
such as the disorder in a system or the interaction between electrons
are varied.
Using a broad range of analytic and numerical techniques, we study
both the quantum and thermal phases of a range of systems corresponding
to superconducting, magnetic,and heavy-fermion materials, to name a few.
We also have a strong continuing interest in the fundamental, universal
properties of physical systems. On an appropriate problem we may use
techniques such as many-body field-theoretic methods and renormalization
to Quantum Monte Carlo. We perform numerical simulations on computers
ranging in size from multi-processor workstations to the fastest
computer in the world, the ASCI-Red 9,000 processor supercomputer at
Sandia National Laboratory.
We have a strong collaborative effort beginning locally with faculty
and currently-resident graduate students and postdoctoral researchers,
to alumni students and postdocs of the group,
and extending globally to scientists literally
around the world. We are fortunate to host several visiting scientists
every year.
We are particularly fortunate at UCD to have one of the largest
condensed-matter theory faculties in the country and we maintain strong
collaborative ties with this local resource, as well.
Faculty
Richard Scalettar
Gergely Zimanyi
Postdoctral Researchers
Cynthia Olson-Reichhardt
Charles Reichhardt
Graduate Students
Matt Enjalran
Undergraduate Students
Tim McIntosh
Alumni
Brian Chiang
Charles DeLeone
Thomas Devereaux
Jim Freericks
Carey Huscroft
Johnny Kuei
Kyungsun Moon
Parhat Niyaz
Ferenc Pazmandi
Karl Runge
Martin Ulmke
Anne von Otterlo
Selected Current Collaborations
Matt Enjalran: enjalran@holmes.ucdavis.edu