Many-body localisation and quantum transport -Understanding the nature and extent of quantum transport and energy flow in macroscopic systems

TMCS is an EPSRC Centre for Doctoral Training operated by the Universities of Oxford, Bristol and Southampton.
In year one you will be based in Oxford with a cohort of around 12–15 other TMCS students, and will receive in-depth training in fundamental theory, software development, and chemical applications, delivered by academics from all three Universities. Successful completion of the year-one program leads to the award of an Oxford MSc, and progression to the 3-year DPhil project detailed below.
Understanding the nature and extent of quantum transport and energy flow in macroscopic systems underlies numerous fundamental processes in condensed matter, whether the transport be of electrons, excitons or vibrational excitations.

Two major factors determine whether (or not) quantum transport occurs: disorder, and interactions between the particles. Together, these basic factors can conspire to produce two distinct types of many-body state, and in turn a quantum phase transition between them: states which are delocalised throughout the underlying many-body Hilbert space, and hence ergodic in nature; or many-body localised states, which are confined to a vanishingly small fraction of the quantum state-space, are non-ergodic in character, and prevent thermalisation and attainment of the equilibrium states described by conventional statistical mechanics.

Now known as ‘many-body localisation’, this large and topical field is widely regarded as representing a new frontier in quantum many-body theory and statistical mechanics; and the project will centre on developing a further understanding of some basic aspects of it.