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Physics Colloquium

Thursday, November 18, 2021
4:00pm to 5:00pm
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Online and In-Person Event
Electrically charged skyrmions and superconductivity
Michael Zaletel, UC Berkeley,

Skyrmions, first proposed in the context of nuclear physics, elegantly realize Kelvin's dream of understanding particles as topological defects in an underlying field. 

When skyrmions arise in 2D quantum materials with band topology, Berry-phase effects can endow them with an electric charge in addition to their magnetic moment, with intriguing implications for electrical transport. In this talk I'll explain how charged skyrmions may even pair into charge-2 bosons which Bose condense, potentially giving a new route to electron-mediated superconductivity in materials like twisted bilayer graphene, and show how recent scanning tunneling microscopy experiments can "image" charged skyrmions in graphene. 

Limited attendance in Feynman Lecture Hall, 201 E. Bridge to first 100 people. All attendees must show valid Caltech ID upon entry. Join via Zoom: https://caltech.zoom.us/j/89237465190. Meeting ID: 892 3746 5190