Dirk Morr, Department of Physics, University of Illinois at Chicago
Understanding the origins of complexity in strongly interacting systems is one of the most fascinating and important problems in condensed matter physics. Experimental advances over the last decade have opened a new bottom-up approach to this intriguing problem by creating nano-/mesoscopic copies of strongly correlated macroscopic systems, thus allowing one to study the emergence of complex behavior at the nanoscale, and to investigate its evolution across the meso- to the macroscale. In this talk, I review three systems that exemplify this successful approach: Kondo droplets and heavy fermion materials, graphene, and biological photosynthetic complexes. In particular, I show how the interplay between geometry, dephasing, and interactions gives rise to the emergence of complex behavior at the nanoscale, both in and out-of- equilibrium.