Hi, I'm Michael (Mickey) Demos

I am a physics PhD student at the University of Kentucky being advised by Arun Debray. I am broadly interested in topological phases of matter, especially topological phases of magnetic systems.

Currently, I am applying methods from algebraic topology to study how symmetries (and their representations) in quantum condensed matter systems restrict the ground state behavior of the system and thus the possible phases of matter that are allowed to appear. Specifically I am concerned with how such restrictions arise from internal U(1) symmetries. On the surface, U(1) symmetries do not seem mathematically intricate enough to induce such restrictions on a system but there is evidence that in many situations a relationship between the two appears. Understanding this relationship could provide an easy way tease out ground state properties of a system. 

In the past I performed computational studies of magnetic systems. I devised and implemented Monte Carlo algorithms to study artificial spin ice systems in the presence of lattice dislocations. As well, I devised and implemented stochastic series expansion quantum Monte Carlo algorithms of bi-layer Heisenberg models in order to study certain magnetic phases of multilayer graphene.

That is my dog, Winston, in the photo above. 

Get in touch at:

 mdemos42@gmail.com 

or mickey.demos@uky.edu (I check this one more often)