Seminars
Seminars occur on Wednesdays from 12:00-1:00 PM Pacific in ISB 130 with a hybrid option over Zoom unless otherwise posted. To join the mailing list, please contact Prof. Ehsan Khatami at ehsan.khatami@sjsu.edu with the words "Seminars and Events" included in the subject heading.
This Week
Interplay of Topology and Geometry in Fractional Quantum Hall Liquids
Kun Yang, Florida State University
Wednesday, 3/12/2025, 12:00-1:00pm Pacific
Abstract: Fractional Quantum Hall Liquids (FQHL) are the ultimate strongly correlated electron
systems, and the birth place of topological phase of matter. Early theoretical work
has emphasized the universal or topological aspects of quantum Hall physics. More
recently it has become increasingly clear that there is very interesting bulk dynamics
in FQHL, associated with an internal geometrical degree of freedom, or metric. The
appropriate quantum theory of this internal dynamics is thus expected to take the
form of a “quantum gravity”, whose elementary excitations are spin-2 gravitons. After
briefly reviewing the topological aspect of FQHL, I will discuss in this talk how
to probe the presence of this internal geometrical degree of freedom experimentally
in the static limit, and detect the graviton excitation in spectroscopic measurements,
in particular how to reveal its chirality. Comparison will be made with recent experimental
and numerical work, and discussions on future experimental probe of the graviton chirality
as well as its significance will be presented.
Bio: Dr. Kun Yang (杨昆) is McKenzie Professor of Physics at Florida State University, and also an affiliated member of National High Magnetic Field Lab in Tallahassee, Florida, USA. He received his PhD from Indiana University in 1994. After postdoctoral work in Princeton and Caltech, he joined the faculty of Florida State University in 1999. His research interest is in theoretical condensed matter and statistical physics. The honors and awards he received over the years include Alfred Sloan fellowship in 1999, Outstanding Young Researcher award of Overseas Chinese Physics Association in 2004, and Outstanding Referee award of American Physical Society (APS) in 2015. He was elected fellow of American Physical Society in 2011, and fellow of American Association for Advancement of Science (AAAS) in 2016.
