Physics Department News

Twenty-six members of staff from the Physics Department joined colleagues from across the Faculty of Science in signing a submission to a House of Commons Education Committee Inquiry into the impact of exiting the European Union on Higher Education. As well as discussing the effect on undergraduate and postgraduate students, a particular focus was on the effect on staff who are non-UK EU nationals (this corresponds to over 20% of Warwick academic staff), notably the continued lack of assurance from government of their status and that of their families. The submission also emphasised the great benefit of freedom of movement of European researchers for ensuring the UK is at the forefront of scientific research, as well as damage that would be done if UK scientists lose access to prestiguous European funding, notably European Research Council grants where the department has been very successful recently.

Dimensionless ratios of physical properties can characterize low-temperature phases in a wide variety of materials. As such, the Wilson ratio (WR), the Kadowaki-Woods ratio, and the Wiedemann-Franz law capture essential features of Fermi liquids in metals, heavy fermions, etc. Here we prove that the phases of many-body interacting multicomponent quantum liquids in one dimension can be described by WRs based on the compressibility, susceptibility, and specific heat associated with each component. These WRs arise due to additivity rules within subsystems reminiscent of the rules for multiresistor networks in series and parallel—a novel and useful characteristic of multicomponent Tomonaga-Luttinger liquids independent of microscopic details of the systems.

Congratulations to Dr Gareth Alexander on his promotion to Associate Professor.

Gareth ’s research is in the theory of soft matter where, amongst other projects, he applies geometry and topology in original ways to understand defects and textures in liquid crystals, and collective behaviour in soft active matter.

The Pettifer Prize for the best overall performance in the first year examinations was awarded to Michal Moravec for 2015-16 by Mary Pettifer and David Leadley, Head of Department.