2025-26 Frederick L. Hovde Distinguished Lecturer
Erica W. Carlson
Professor of Physics and Astronomy at Purdue University
Fractal “Universes” Inside of Quantum Materials
Abstract
Quantum physics is about how the world works on its tiniest scales, typically a few atoms or smaller. In the quantum realm, particles are waves and waves are particles. Things we take for granted about how the world works no longer seem to apply, and the line between what is and what is not gets blurred. With quantum materials, scientists are trying to take these strange quantum properties inside of materials and bring them to the forefront where we can use them and control them. Inside of each new quantum material, it’s like a whole new universe, and new particles can emerge inside that simply do not exist out in the ‘wild’. We discovered that many of these materials spontaneously develop fractal electronic structures as well. This new conceptual framework provides a unified theory of these structures across multiple families of quantum materials, with applications ranging from brain-inspired computing to energy materials.
Bio
Erica W. Carlson is a Professor of Physics and Astronomy at Purdue University. Prof. Carlson holds a BS in Physics from the California Institute of Technology (1994), as well as a Ph.D. in Physics from UCLA (2000). Prof. Carlson researches electronic phase transitions in quantum materials. In 2006, she received the Cottrell Scholar Award for research and teaching. In 2015, she was elected a Fellow of the American Physical Society "for theoretical insights into the critical role of electron nematicity, disorder, and noise in novel phases of strongly correlated electron systems and predicting unique characteristics." In 2020, she was a Fulbright Scholar. Prof. Carlson has been on the faculty at Purdue University since 2003. In 2017 she received the University’s highest teaching award, the Murphy Award. In 2018 she was named a "150th Anniversary Professor" in recognition of teaching excellence, and in 2022 she received Purdue’s Seed for Success Acorn Award. She is a founding member of the Institute for Quantum Pedagogy and its Relation to Culture (IQ-PARC). She is also Host of The Quantum Age, a YouTube channel popularizing quantum physics and quantum materials (youtube.com/@TheQuantumAge).