Condensed Matter Theory

Abstract:

We consider the optical conductivity in the one dimensional Hubbard model in the metallic phase close to half filling. In this regime most of the spectral weight is located at frequencies above an energy scale Eopt that tends towards the optical gap in the Mott insulating phase for vanishing doping. Using the Bethe Ansatz we relate Eopt to thresholds of particular kinds of excitations in the Hubbard model. We then employ a mobile impurity models to analyze the optical conductivity for frequencies slightly above these thresholds. This entails generalizing mobile impurity models to excited states that are not highest weight with regards to the SU(2) symmetries of the Hubbard chain, and that occur at a maximum of the impurity dispersion.

Abstract:

This is a series of four lectures presented at the 2015 Enrico Fermi Summer School in Varenna. The aim of the lectures is to give an introduction to the hydrodynamics of active matter concentrating on low-Reynolds-number examples such as cells and molecular motors. Lecture 1 introduces the hydrodynamics of single active particles, covering the Stokes equation and the Scallop Theorem, and stressing the link between autonomous activity and the dipolar symmetry of the far flow field. In lecture 2 I discuss applications of this mathematics to the behaviour of microswimmers at surfaces and in external flows, and describe our current understanding of how swimmers stir the surrounding fluid. Lecture 3 concentrates on the collective behaviour of active particles, modelled as an active nematic. I write down the equations of motion and motivate the form of the active stress. The resulting hydrodynamic instability leads to a state termed "active turbulence" characterised by strong jets and vortices in the flow field and the continual creation and annihilation of pairs of topological defects. Lecture 4 compares simulations of active turbulence to experiments on suspensions of microtubules and molecular motors. I introduce lyotropic active nematics and discuss active anchoring at interfaces.