The Allure of Hidden Order
Nicholas P. Butch (NIST Center for Neutron Research and University of Maryland)
Among the unsolved mysteries of condensed matter physics, perhaps that most provocative is that of Hidden Order, an electronic phase that emerges at low temperatures in the intermetallic compound URu2Si2. Over the course of thirty years, many hundreds of publications have been devoted to its resolution, yet today experts still do not agree on what precisely is going on. In this talk, I will describe how interactions between bound and itinerant electrons lead to weird effects in crystals, and how such emergent behavior can serve as a platform for exotic physics. Along the way, I will highlight how neutron scattering measurements have helped us to better understand this enigma, and what we think may still be hiding.
Back to Seminar Home Page
Last modified 28-September-2016 by website owner: NCNR (attn: )
