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Packard Fellowship Award
updated: Oct 22, 2012, 12:37 PM
Source: UCSB
Without a laboratory -- using only a blackboard, computer, and his powerful intellect -- a
young theoretical physicist at UC
Santa Barbara is quickly racking up national and international awards honoring his research in quantum physics. Although
Cenke Xu
works in an abstract realm, his research may have far-reaching practical applications.
An assistant professor in the Department of Physics, Xu has emerged on the national and international stage with his
pursuit of
new states of matter. This month, he was awarded the coveted Packard Fellowship -- as one of only 16 scientific
researchers from
across the country to receive this distinction. He will receive an unrestricted research grant of $875,000 over five
years.
"I am delighted to congratulate Professor Cenke Xu on being awarded a prestigious Packard
Fellowship," said Chancellor Henry T.
Yang. "Professor Xu's exciting research on quantum states with nontrivial topological structures is garnering widespread
attention; he was recently recognized with a National Science Foundation CAREER award, a Sloan Research Fellowship, and
named
Outstanding Young Researcher by the Overseas Chinese Physics Association. UC Santa Barbara is grateful to the David and
Lucile
Packard Foundation for their partnership in advancing scientific research on our campus for over three decades."
As a theoretical physicist, Xu is a trailblazer, exploring new worlds in science. "Everyone is
familiar with the states of matter
in the classical world: solid, liquid, and gas. The goal of my research is to look for and understand new states of
matter in the
quantum world," Xu said.
"Since the discovery of quantum mechanics about 100 years ago, many new states of matter have
been understood, including the
underlying physics or ‘mechanism' for metals, insulators, and semiconductors. These make up the foundation of the entire
modern
electronic industry," he continued.
Approximately 30 years ago, condensed matter physicists reached a consensus that the interplay
between the strong interaction and
quantum fluctuation can lead to much more exotic and richer states of matter, said Xu. The mechanism for metals,
insulators, and
semiconductors can be understood in terms of completely free, or non-interacting, quantum electrons. However, many other
phenomena can only be understood after taking into account both quantum mechanics and the strong interaction, since
single
electrons become almost invisible in these systems. These states are usually called "unconventional" or "exotic" states
of
matter.
"One particular type of such an unconventional state is the ‘fractional quantum Hall state,' "
said Xu. This is the state where
quantum mechanics and the strong interaction make the electrons move hand-in-hand so that single electrons are no longer
a good
description of the system. Eventually the "particle" of this system carries a fraction of the electron charge.
Physicists have
been surprised by this phenomenon, and have found it can only occur in strongly interacting, quantum, many-body systems
--
systems with large numbers of constituents. Fractionalization of physical quantities is the most striking -- but also
universal
-- phenomenon of these unconventional states.
"The goal of my research is to understand and classify unconventional states like the
fractional quantum Hall state, and also the
transition between these states," said Xu. "Besides classification, I am also trying to propose experimental methods to
detect
and probe these unconventional states in laboratories."
Omer Blaes, chair of the Department of Physics, said: "Cenke Xu is an extraordinarily bright
and creative theoretical physicist
working on understanding strongly quantum phenomena in solid state matter, a field that is rich with potential practical
applications. The Packard Fellowship will provide him with considerable freedom to pursue one of his primary interests:
the study
of quantum phases of matter, particularly topological phases and quantum critical points or phase transitions around
topological
phases. These may provide an important key to understanding and classifying the rich diversity of behavior in numerous
classes of
materials."
Xu thanked both the Department of Physics and UCSB for nominating him for the fellowship. "I
want to thank my colleagues in my
department for their support in my research and teaching, and also the Office of Research for their help during my
preparation
for the application," he said.
Xu received his Ph.D. just five years ago from UC Berkeley. Then, following his postdoctoral
research as a Junior Fellow with the
Society of Fellows at Harvard University, he joined the faculty at UCSB in 2010.
Over the past 25 years, the Packard Fellowships program has awarded $316 million to support 489
faculty members from 52 top
national universities. It is among the nation's largest nongovernmental fellowships, designed with minimal constraints
on how the
funding is used -- to give the Fellows freedom to look at complex issues with a fresh perspective. Packard Fellows have
gone on
to receive additional awards and honors, including the Nobel Prize in Physics; the Fields Medal; the MacArthur
Fellowships; and
elections to the National Academy of Sciences and the National Academy of Engineering.
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