Dr. Maxim Breitkreiz is head of the new Emmy Noether junior research group "Microscopic and Nanoscopic Physics of Topological Metals" at the Department of Physics. In this lecture, he will present his research in the field of theoretical condensed matter physics and elementary particle physics. Of particular interest is the exploration of quantum anomalies arising in nanostructures of topological metals

Quantum-mechanical systems that break a symmetry of its classical action are called quantum anomalous. Such systems challenge our understanding of fundamental physics and enable exotic and potentially useful response properties. While first predicted in the elementary-particle quantum field theory for hypothetical massless fermions, quantum anomalies have been already realized in condensed matter, where the massless fermions arise as topologically protected quasiparticles. 

In this talk I will introduce quantum-anomalous matter and I will present some of our recently predicted anomaly-related phenomena at interfaces and in superstructures of anomaly-hosting materials. Some of these phenomena modify our basic text-book understanding of metals. In particular, I will show the effect of an invisible Fermi surface: A Fermi surface that remains invisible in standard quantum-oscillation experiments for Fermi-surface mapping, such as Shubnikov-de Haas and de Haas-van Alphen effects.