DEPARTMENT OF PHYSICS
The Condensed Matter Theory group is active in several areas of the theory of matter, and consists of 4 members of academic staff (Professor Mohamed Babiker, Professor Rex Godby, Professor Jim Matthew and Dr. Matt Probert), 3 postdoctoral research fellows and 9 graduate students. The group has a regular seminar series with external and internal speakers.
SEMINARS
Seminars are held every Tuesday morning in P/C012 from 10:00 to 12:00.
Other seminar series containing talks on condensed-matter theory from time to time include the Graduate Seminars and the Departmental Colloquia.
Mohamed Babiker
Research interests include atom optics and quantum optics, laser cooling and trapping, orbital angular momentum of light, Bose-Einstein condensation, QED in media, photonic band-gap systems, electron-phonon interactions, electric transport in low-dimensional structures and large band-gap semiconductors.
Members of the sub-group: Quantum and Atom Optics Theory; Condensed Matter Theory
Rex Godby
The main work consists of computational and theoretical studies of the correlation of electrons in solids, owing to their mutual repulsion, and the consequences for the electronic and optical properties of the material. Related work aims at understanding and improving the key functionals of density-functional theory, which is an elegant computational method for calculating ground-state properties of interacting electrons.
Jim Matthew
Research is closely allied to the experimental programme in surface physics, including work on the theory of Auger spectroscopy, photoemission spectroscopy, and low-energy electron diffraction at the surfaces of solids. Improvements to the theoretical understanding of these processes are crucial in achieving accurate experimental determinations of the structure and electronic properties of the atoms at the surface of a solid.
Matt Probert
The research is based upon the computer simulation of complex processes in materials using molecular-dynamics-based techniques, especially ab initio path-integral molecular dynamics for the study of light particles in solids, such as hydrogen in silicon.
Department of Physics home page
Page maintained by Rex Godby (
rwg3@york.ac.uk)