Unparticles in Strongly Correlated Electron Matter – Philip Phillips

Date: Thu. January 17th, 2013, 4:15 pm-5:15 pm
Location: Rockefeller 301

Several years ago, Howard Georgi introduced the concept of unparticles. Unparticle stuff has no particular mass. In fact, the mass of unparticle stuff looks the same on any number of scales in contrast to particle matter which has a definite mass. Another curious fact is that unparticles can carry current but make no contribution to the density of particles. In strongly correlated electron matter such as the high-temperature superconductors, the number of charge carriers that has a particle interpretation is less than the conserved charge. I will argue that unparticle stuff makes up the difference. The consequences of unparticle stuff for the physics of high-temperature superconductors will be explored.