The principal research objective of the Department of Condensed Matter Theory is a comprehensive microscopic description of electronic and atomic properties of solids, in particular of systems with a nontrivial complex structure of the elementary cell, broken or reduced translational symmetry or of systems in extremal external conditions in or out of thermodynamic equilibrium. To reach this objective we extensively use advanced techniques of equilibrium and non-equilibrium classical and quantum statistical mechanics, many-body theory, Green's functions, large-sclae first-principles calculations and numerical simulations. We aim at qualitative understanding of collective phenomena in solids on a model level and a realistic quantitative description of behavior of real materials.
Our research interests include:
Quantum theory
of electrons in solids on model and ab-initio level (electron states of
complex materials, spectral, magnetic and transport properties of
metals and semiconductors, their alloys, surfaces, interfaces and multilayers;
electron correlations, quantum critical phenomena in itinerant systems)
Nonequilibrium and transient quantum phenomena (electron dynamics in low-dimensional systems and nanostructures, quantum relaxation and decoherence, ultrafast spectroscopy)
Theory and computer simulations of complex statistical systems (formation of surface nanostructures, random and spin-glass systems, dynamical fluctuations in irreversible processes)