Prof. Maxim Metlitski

Professor Max Metlitski is a condensed matter theorist working in the field of correlated quantum matter. During the past few years, he has been particularly interested in understanding so-called topological phases, such as quantum Hall states and topological insulators. These states of matter exhibit novel excitations with non-trivial quantum numbers and braiding statistics and/or non-trivial protected edge modes.

Surprisingly, this investigation has also shed light on several seemingly unrelated but long-standing problems, such as the exotic metallic state observed in the quantum Hall fluid at filling factor 1/2, as well as certain phase transitions in quantum magnets. Moreover, insights from these physical systems have led Metlitski to conjecture several unexpected dualities between certain gauge theories.

Other topics that interest Metlitski include quantum criticality in general, and non-Fermi-liquid behavior in metals in particular, as well as the structure of entanglement in many-body systems.