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PV: Plenarvorträge

PV XI

PV XI: Prize Talk

Tuesday, March 17, 2015, 14:30–15:00, H 0104

Symmetry Protected Topological Phases in One-Dimensional Systems — •Frank Pollmann — Max Planck Institute for the Physics of Complex Systems --- Laureate of the Walter-Schottky-Prize

Classifying and understanding different phases of matter is an important task of condensed matter physics. The class of ``conventional'' symmetry broken phases is well understood in terms of Landau's theory. In contrast, topological phases, i.e., phases of matter that cannot be characterized in terms of symmetry breaking, are less understood and no complete classification is known so far. In my talk, I will introduce the class of Symmetry Protected Topological (SPT) Phases and describe a mathematical framework to classify them. These SPT phases are topological phases of matter that are distinct from a trivially disordered phase only as long as certain symmetries are preserved. A well known example of such a phase is the Haldane phase in spin-1 chains.