Analysis of strongly-disordered topological insulators

Thu Apr 20, 2023 4:00 p.m.—5:00 p.m.
Exterior of Sheffield-Sterling-Strathcona Hall featuring a stone carving of Yale's coat of arms and motto

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Seminar: 
Analysis

Event time: 
Thursday, April 20, 2023 - 4:00pm

Location: 
LOM 205

Speaker: 
Jacob Shapiro

Speaker affiliation: 
Princeton

Event description: 
In this talk I will give an introduction to the mathematical theory of strongly disordered topological insulators. These are novel materials which insulate in their bulk but (may) conduct along their edge; the quintessential example is that of the integer quantum Hall effect. What characterizes these materials is the existence of a topological index, experimentally measurable and macroscopically quantized. Mathematically this is explained by applying algebraic topology to the space of appropriate quantum mechanical Hamiltonians. I will survey some recent results regarding bulk-edge correspondence, calculation of the path-connected components and the connection to Anderson localization.