General Colloquium:
October 14- 4:00pm Phys 223
(Coffee at 3:30p.m. in room 242)

Professor Michael Stone
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Department of Physics

Title:"Vortex dynamics: the Magnus force and its Analogues"

Abstract
I will discuss the dynamics of vortices and vortex-like objects in contexts ranging from Tornados to the quantum Hall effect. I focus on the Magnus force including how, in quantum mechanical systems, it manifests itself as Berry phase, how it may disguise itself as something else, and how it may even disappear.

Research Area
Theoretical condensed matter physics; statistical physics; mathematical physics; quantum field theory and its applications in condensed matter systems and particle physics. The main focus of Professor Stone's current research is the dynamics of vortices in superfluids and superconductors. He has resolved a decades-long puzzle about the fundamental mechanism of dissipation in superconductors by clarifying the motion of Abrikosov vortices under the influence of a Magnus force. Previously, he explored and clarified the extent to which topological constraints impose "anomalous" behavior on physical systems, such as superfluid liquid helium, and has linked such behavior to the Berry's phase. He has also greatly extended the range of models to which bosonization can be applied and has successfully extracted implications for physical systems. In addition, he has explored the "edge wave" states observed in experiments on the quantum Hall effect and has clarified their nature by linking them to one-dimensional chiral field theories. Professor Stone's contributions have been characterized by a combination of sophisticated mathematical formalism and deep physical insight.

Description of Current Research
Applications of Field Theory to Condensed Matter Physics This program is aimed at advancing the theoretical understanding of a variety of condensed matter systems, each involving many strongly coupled degrees of freedom. Attention is primarily focused on the following areas: electronic liquid crystal phases in Mott insulators; the quantum Hall effect; geometric phases and their condensed matter implications; superfluids and superconductors, including vortex motion in dirty systems, quantum critical behavior of magnetic impurities in -wave superconductors; vulcanized matter and the vulcanization transition; structural glasses and network-forming systems, glassiness of superfluid helium-three in aerogel, shapes adopted by large biological macromolecules, and static and dynamic properties of polysoap macromolecules.