Quick Bio 

    I am a grad student studying physics at UC Santa Barbara, where I started Fall '05 (before coming to UCSB, I studied math and physics at Georgia Tech). My main area of interest is in quantum condensed matter theory, which is the study of quantum systems with a large number of constituents, each of which can be understood quantum mechanically. Some people think that condensed matter isn't as cool as high energy physics (fundamental particles, string theory and all that), but it is a field that is full of subtlety and exotic quantum effects. It is also a subject that lends itself to the application of interesting mathematical tools and computational techniques.

    In particular, my research at UCSB has so far been in the area of 'frustrated magnetism'. Despite the odd sounding name, a frustrated magnet is just a magnet in which the interactions between the atomic spins compete with one another. For instance, in a triangular lattice antiferromagnet, the spins would like to line up in the opposite direction from their neighbors, but this sort of arrangement is impossible on a triangle, hence the sense of frustration! So, the atoms have to compromise, and this causes their quantum nature to become much more apparent. As researchers, our challenge is to figure out what compromises the atoms settle upon in various materials; if you look at my first paper on the subject (Ordered Phases of the Anisotropic KAF) we found that the magnetism in a certain class of quasi-2D materials can be understood using a technique developed for one-dimensional systems (bosonization). Then, in `Quadrupolar correlations and spin freezing...' we found some very subtle types of spin ordering using symmetry arguments and a new computer simulation method. But, the possibilities for frustrated magnets are so vast that what works for one problem may be completely useless for the next!