<b>Faculty Candidate Seminar</b><br><i>Topological Insulators and Superconductors</i>

Speaker: Dr. Liang Fu (Harvard University) - Condensed Matter Seminar

The discovery of quantum Hall effects at high magnetic fields in 1980s revealed the existence of topologically ordered phases of matter without spontaneous symmetry breaking. In the last few years, a variety of new topological phases has been theoretically discovered in band insulators with strong spin-orbit coupling and superconductors with unconventional pairing symmetry. In this talk, I will describe the unifying topological structure of these electronic phases, theoretical predictions and experimental realizations of topological insulators, as well as ongoing efforts towards finding topological superconductors. I will also discuss potential applications of topological insulators in quantum computation.