Qimiao Si
Rice University, TX·Physics
The textbook picture of metals treats electrons as moving almost independently. That picture explains aluminum and silicon well, but it fails for many quantum materials.
- Fields
Physics
- Topics
condensed matter theory
strongly correlated electrons
quantum materials
- Grants
- 1 known grant, through Aug 2027
What they work on
- Analyze quantum criticality in heavy fermion metals, where electrons behave as if very heavy, focusing on new regimes marked by singular charge responses near zero-temperature phase transitions.
- Initiate theoretical studies of new phases emerging near quantum critical points, focusing on candidate spin-triplet superconductivity, in which electrons pair with aligned spins and flow without resistance.
- Explore non-Fermi-liquid physics, metallic behavior beyond standard theory, in Weyl-Kondo semimetal systems using controlled theoretical methods on well-defined models.
- Investigate the out-of-equilibrium behavior of quantum critical systems, asking how strongly correlated metals respond when driven away from steady states.
More about the research
In these materials, electrons strongly affect each other's motion, called strong correlation. Such correlations can create new phases of matter and phase transitions that happen at absolute zero temperature. These quantum phase transitions are driven by quantum effects rather than heat, unlike water freezing into ice. Near some of them, electrons act collectively and a "strange metal" appears that breaks the usual rules of metal behavior. This theory project asks how strong correlations produce unusual excitations and new quantum phases in metals.
Why it matters
This is basic theoretical physics. It aims to explain strange-metal behavior and unusual superconductivity in strongly correlated materials, which the standard theory of metals cannot describe. In the long run, this understanding could inform quantum materials for quantum computing, quantum sensing and precision measurement, including superconducting phases that may matter for quantum information technologies.
Known grants
From NIH and NSF research grants. Labs often have other funding we can't see.
Closest labs
Sarang Gopalakrishnan
Princeton University, NJ·Physics
Predict how clean and disordered superconductors respond when driven strongly, and show how these nonlinear signals could measure the lifetimes of excitations and test whether energy stays localized.
Vladimir Dobrosavljevic
Florida State University, FL·Physics
Develop a theory of disorder-dominated metal-insulator transitions away from the Mott regime, using a polaronic picture and a self-consistent, nonperturbative saddle-point approach with systematic corrections.
Yusong Bai
Brown University, RI·Physics·Early-career
Establish correlated electronic states and electric-field-controlled metal-insulator transitions in heterostructures where ordered nanocrystal superlattices impose periodic potentials on atomically thin materials, using low-temperature electrical transport.
The school
Rice University: 24 labs on PI Pages, $278M a year on research, 267 research doctorates a year.
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