2023-10-09 - 2023-10-13
Rajib Sarkar
TU Dresden
‘It is only slightly overstating the case to say that physics is the study of symmetry.’
P. W. Anderson (1972) from ‘More is different’
In this course, I will try to give you a brief introduction to why and how breaking symmetry is important in condensed matter physics. Rather than covering a rigorous mathematical treatment, I will mainly focus on experiments.
In general, the following topics will be covered:
* Why is symmetry important in Physics?
* Symmetry in Nature, Life
* Relevance of Symmetry in Condensed Matter Physics
* Different Kinds of Symmetry: Translational, Rotational, …
* Symmetry Breaking
* Consequences of Symmetry Breaking: Phase transitions, Excitations, …
* Critical Phenomena and Universality
* Symmetry Breaking in Magnetism and Superconductivity
* Time Reversal Symmetry Breaking
* Broken Symmetry by Uniaxial Strain
