Mathematics Colloquia and Seminars

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The energy spectrum of a many-body quantum system and its physical properties at low temperature can often be understood in terms of a particle description of the eigenvectors of the Hamiltonian of the system. These (quasi-)particles derive some of their most important properties from the local structure of the interactions and the physical space in which the system resides. I will review important old and new results in mathematical physics that describe this particle structure, discuss the relation between particle statistics and the topology of configuration space, and conclude with a discussion of recent results and open problems regarding topologically ordered phases of matter.

Reception to follow the lecture