11.11.2009 (Wednesday)

Superconductors and quantum criticality in M-theory

Regular Seminar Julian Sonner (Imperial)

at:
13:15 KCL
room 423
abstract:

Quantum phase transitions imply certain scaling relations among space and time. A subclass of quantum critical systems is in fact invariant under relativstic conformal symmetries. Such theories have recently been studied as a new class of duals in AdS/CFT. I will describe how one can exactly embed so-called holographic superconductors in M-theory and how this embedding has already lead to new insights about the low-temperature behaviour of holgraphic superconductors with an underlying quantum critical point.