InstituteQ Colloquium: Professor Cristiane de Morais Smith

This InstituteQ Colloquium features Professor Cristiane de Morais Smith of the Institute for Theoretical Physics at Utrecht University. The title of her talk is “Quantum Fractals: From meta- to real materials.”

Professor Morais Smith is a theoretical physicist working on strongly interacting systems at Utrecht University, the Netherlands. In collaboration with experimental colleagues, her group has pioneered the realization of quantum fractals in electronic quantum simulators. Morais Smith has published more than 170 papers and was invited to give about 400 talks. Among others, she was the recipient of the Dresselhaus Prize in 2016 and of the Emmy Noether distinction of the European Physical Society in 2019 “for her outstanding contributions to the theory of condensed matter systems and ultracold atoms to unveil novel quantum states of matter”. In 2020, she was selected by the German Physical Society as one of the 175 most inspiring scientists in the world.

Event details

When: 14.00-15.00, 18.2.2025
Where: Lecture Hall 2005 TU2, Maarintie 8, 02150 Espoo
Register: Webropol link to register
Host: Aalto University Physics Professor Päivi Törmä
Refreshments will be served.

From Cristiane de Morais Smith: What will your talk discuss?

We know how electrons behave in 1,2,3 dimensions, but what about d=1.58? In this talk, I will first describe fractals, structures that may have a non-integer dimension. I will present experiments on electronic [1] and photonic [2] quantum simulators and explain how electrons and photons behave at fractal dimension. Then, I will discuss the topological properties of electrons in self-formed bismuth fractals on InSb [3]. Finally, I will present theoretical results on the Hubbard model in a fractal geometry [4] and discuss ongoing studies on a fractal made of Rydberg atoms with long-range interactions (in preparation).

[1] S.N. Kempkes, M.R. Slot, S.E. Freeney, S.J.M. Zevenhuizen, D. Vanmaekelbergh, I. Swart, and C. Morais Smith, “Design and characterization of electronic fractals”, Nature Physics 15, 127 (2019) [see also 15 years of Nature Physics, Nature Physics 16, 999 (2020)].

[2] X.-Y. Xu, X.-W. Wang, D.-Y. Chen, C. Morais Smith, and X.-M. Jin, “Quantum transport in fractal networks,” Nature Photonics 15, 703 (2021).

[3] R. Canyellas , C. Liu et al., “Topological edge and corner states in Bi fractals on InSb,” Nature Physics 20, 1421 (2024).

[4] M. Conte, V. Zampronio, M. Rontgen, and C. Morais Smith, “The fractal-lattice Hubbard model”, Quantum 8, 1469 (2024).