Dr Zohar Nussinov

Assistant Professor

Department of Physics, Washington University in St. Louis

PH: 011 (314) 935-6272
Click here to visit Web Site

Background

Education2000 Ph.D. - UCLA, Physics,My prime focus is in condensed matter physics. This covers both ""hard"" (electronic) and ""soft"" (essentially classical) systems. This area is very diverse and is consistently shifting. As a result, my research spans many problems. Students are encouraged to join in on any one of the topics outlined below.

The application of simple statistical mechanics and classical mechanics ideas to graph theory and satistifiability problems has led to a remarkably simple algorithms for old problems. Our ideas rest on dynamics in high dimensions where slow covergence to the solution can be avoided.

The fascinating field of topological quantum orders [partially motivated by prospects of fault tolerant quantum computing] forces us to rethink anew our basic notions of order and topology. It is one of the most rapidly growning fields in condensed matter physics. Many of the tools used borrow heavily from field theory: condensed matter systems offer a direct realization of many ideas. In addition, they offer examples of emergent phenomena which appear at low energy scales.