Field Theories For Low Dimensional Condensed Matter Systems

This book is especially addressed to young researchers in theoretical physics with a basic background in Field Theory and Condensed Matter Physics. The topics were chosen so as to offer the largest possible overlap between the two expertises, selecting a few key problems in Condensed Matter Theory which have been recently revisited within a field-theoretic approach. The presentation of the material is aimed not only at providing the reader with an overview of this exciting frontier area of modern theoretical physics, but also at elucidating most of the tools needed for a technical comprehen sion of the many papers appearing in current issues of physics journals and, hopefully, to enable the reader to tackle research problems in this area of physics. This makes the material a live creature: while not pretending it to be exhaustive, it is tutorial enough to be useful to young researchers as a starting point in anyone of the topics covered in the book.

The Cargese Summer School "Low Dimensional Applications of Quantum Field Theory" was held in July 1995. The School was dedicated to the memory of Claude Itzykson. This session focused on the recent progress in quantum field theory in two dimen sions with a particular emphasis on integrable models and applications of quantum field theory to condensed matter physics. A large fraction of the school was also devoted to a detailed review of the exciting developments in four dimensional super symmetric Yang-Mills theory. The diversity of the topics presented constitute, in our opinion, one of the most attractive features of these proceedings. Some contributions constitute a very thor ough introduction to their subject matter and should be helpful to advanced students in the field while others present entirely new research, not previously published, and should be of considerable interest to the specialist. There were in depth introductory lectures on the application of conformal field theory techniques to disordered systems, on the quantum Hall effect, on quantum in tegrable systems, on the thermodynamic Bethe Ansatz and on the new developments in supersymmetric gauges theories. The computation of the three point function of the Liouville model using conformal bootstrap methods was presented in detail.

This volume contains a set of pedagogical reviews covering the most recent applications of low-dimensional quantum field theory in condensed matter physics, written by experts who have made major contributions to this rapidly developing field of research. The main purpose is to introduce active young researchers to new ideas and new techniques which are not covered by the standard textbooks

This book presents a selection of advanced lectures from leading researchers, providing recent theoretical results on strongly coupled quantum field theories. It also analyzes their use for describing new quantum states, which are physically realizable in condensed matter, cold-atomic systems, as well as artificial materials. It particularly focuses on the engineering of these states in quantum devices and novel materials useful for quantum information processing. The book offers graduate students and young researchers in the field of modern condensed matter theory an updated review of the most relevant theoretical methods used in strongly coupled field theory and string theory. It also provides the tools for understanding their relevance in describing the emergence of new quantum states in a variety of physical settings. Specifically, this proceedings book summarizes new and previously unrelated developments in modern condensed matter physics, in particular: the interface of condensed matter theory and quantum information theory; the interface of condensed matter physics and the mathematics emerging from the classification of the topological phases of matter, such as topological insulators and topological superconductors; and the simulation of condensed matter systems with cold atoms in optical lattices.

The application of field theoretic techniques to problems in condensed matter physics has generated an array of concepts and mathematical techniques to attack a range of problems such as the theory of quantum phase transitions, the quantum Hall effect, and quantum wires. While concepts such as the renormalization group, topology, and bosonization h

Presenting the physics of the most challenging problems in condensed matter using the conceptual framework of quantum field theory, this book is of great interest to physicists in condensed matter and high energy and string theorists, as well as mathematicians. Revised and updated, this second edition features new chapters on the renormalization group, the Luttinger liquid, gauge theory, topological fluids, topological insulators and quantum entanglement. The book begins with the basic concepts and tools, developing them gradually to bring readers to the issues currently faced at the frontiers of research, such as topological phases of matter, quantum and classical critical phenomena, quantum Hall effects and superconductors. Other topics covered include one-dimensional strongly correlated systems, quantum ordered and disordered phases, topological structures in condensed matter and in field theory and fractional statistics.

This volume contains a set of pedagogical reviews covering the most recent applications of low-dimensional quantum field theory in condensed matter physics, written by experts who have made major contributions to this rapidly developing field of research. The main purpose is to introduce active young researchers to new ideas and new techniques which are not covered by the standard textbooks.