Call for Proposals for Future Schools
Each year the Board of Directors will select a topic or topics
for the school from proposals made by the community. If you have
suggestions for topics and/or people to organize the schools,
please send us an email at: boulder.school@yale.edu.
The proposals do not need to be highly formal, just a brief list
of topics, the physics motivations, and possible organizers and
suggestions for a few key lecturers to contact.
We list below some of the example topics included in our
proposal to the NSF. This set of possible school topics is far
from exhaustive. Other possible topics that could be considered
for schools include: quantum optics of materials, mechanical and
structural properties of materials, polymers, complex fluids and
polyelectrolytes, biomaterials and biologically inspired physics,
and quantum computation.
Nonequilibrium Statistical Mechanics
- Fundamental Concepts: long-time dynamics of quenched
systems, avalanches and the long-time behavior of driven
systems, pattern formation, front propagation and shapes.
- Growth of Films and Solids: Cahn-Hilliard Theory, surface
energetics and step dynamics, realistic modeling of film
growth.
- Friction, Fracture and Adhesion: earthquakes and
geophysics, bonding, adhesion and crazing, sandpiles:
statics and dynamics.
- Self-Assembly: GaAs quantum dots from wet chemistry,
polymer systems, thin films.
Nanoscale Physics
- Nanoscale Magnetism: quantum tunneling of magnetic
domains, magnetic Mn cluster molecules, atomic scale
magnetic thin films, fundamental limits of magnetic
recording.
- Semiconductor Quantum Dots and Wires: optical properties,
quantum dot and wire lasers, electronic correlations,
superconducting pairing and fluctuations, energy level
statistics, disorder and interactions.
- Micro-mechanics: first-principles computation of
mechanical properties at nanoscales, classical and
quantum mechanics of small cantilever oscillators.
- Scanning Probes: STM and AFM probes of surfaces and
structures, molecular assembly, reaction dynamics studies
with STM, scanning SQUID probes, near-field optical
probes.
- Carbon nanotubes: electronic properties, dopants,
topological defects, transport, correlations, persistent
currents.
Electron Correlations and Materials Properties
- Fundamental Concepts: Mott Transition; Kondo problem;
Quantum Critical Phenomena; Luttinger Liquids.
- Electron-hole liquid and laser physics: excitonic
insulator/super-conductor; nonequilibrium electron-hole
plasma; microcavities and chaotic fluctuations; coupling
to radiation.
- Quantum dots and the mesoscopic-macroscopic transition:
mesoscopic superconductivity; level statistics and
quantum dot spectroscopy; linear and nonlinear transport.
- Oxides: manganites, titanates, cuprates; ferroelectricity,
half metallicity and magnetoresistance, electrical and
thermal transport; optical properties, charge ordering.
- Spin-dependent transport and 'spin electronics'.
Applied Physics of Novel Materials
Condensed matter physics invents new devices on a regular
basis. This summer school would describe how these devices work.
This is useful background for students who wish to use such
devices, and are interested in possibilities for new devices.
This material is largely available in textbooks, but is not a
course taught at most U.S. universities.
- Semiconductor Devices: semiconductor energy bands,
semiconductor properties, interfaces, semiconductor
diodes: p-n junctions, etc., MOSFETs, etc.;
thermoelectrics, polycrystalline properties, varistors;
solid state lasers.
- Superconducting and Single Electron Devices: Josephson
junctions, electrical engineering with superconducting
resonators and strip lines, SQUIDS, charging effects in
low capacitance junctions, macroscopic quantum tunneling
of phase and flux, superconducting logic devices, quantum
and classical computing.
- Liquid Crystals: basic physics of soft matter: novel
phases and phase transitions, quenched disorder, complex
behavior of structured fluids; technology: LCD display
technologies, current and future.
Bio-informatics and Genetic Networks
Bio-informatics is a (rapidly developing) method of
acquisition of biological knowledge from the growing body of
laboratory data generated by sequencing of genomes and by the
gene-chip technology. It is capable in principle of addressing
both practical and fundamental questions (from functional
identification of genes to understanding of gene interactions and
hence control of cell function and development). As a field of
study it has a natural appeal to physicists with an interest in
biology and a background in statistical mechanics and computation.
The goal of the school would be to facilitate such a student's
entry into the field by: (a) familiarizing the student with the
existing methods and the types of available data; and (b)
providing the student with context of the fundamental questions
pertaining to the functional organization of the cell. Possible
topics of focus:
- Statistical and computational aspects of sequence
comparison. 'Sequence to function' methods. Homology.
Phylogenetic studies.
- Basic genetic mechanisms. Mutation and dominant modes of
gene evolution.
- Genetic networks. Control of gene expression in pro- and
eukaryots.
- Experimental studies of gene expression: e.g. yeast cell
cycle. Methods and issues in the analysis of gene-chip
data.
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