Prof. Senthil Todadri

In the last several years, a number of materials have been found whose properties do not seem to fit in simply with conventional theories of the physics of solids. Striking examples are the materials that display the remarkable phenomenon of high-temperature superconductivity, but there are many others as well. Strong interactions between the electrons in the solid and/or the presence of impurities play a crucial role in determining the properties of these materials. My research interests are in understanding theoretically the phenomena that could and do arise in such circumstances.

More specifically, Professor Todadri's most recent interests have been in developing ways of thinking about the breakdown of Fermi liquid theory to describe the electrons in some metals. A growing number of examples of such "non-Fermi liquid metals" are being discovered in experiments, and developing general principles underlying their behavior is an urgent challenge. In earlier work, Todadri has explored the possibility that the excitations in some quantum many electron systems have quantum numbers that are fractions of those of the electron. Put loosely, the electron has been broken apart! Todadri continues to retain an interest in such fractionalization and other related exotic phenomena.

Another area he is generally interested in is in the theory of zero temperature phase transitions driven by quantum fluctuations. Current focus is on understanding how a Fermi surface might die through such a quantum phase transition. Previously my collaborators and Todadri initiated the theory of deconfined quantum criticality which describes several quantum phase transitions that fall beyond the scope of the familiar Landau-Ginzburg-Wilson paradigm of phase transition theory. He has also worked on the theory of electron localization due to impurities in various circumstances.