“Topologically Protected Fermi Surfaces”

Daniel Agterberg, UW-Milawukee Department of Physics

The recent rapid development in understanding quantum materials has been shaped by the concept of topological stability: topology ensures robustness of physical properties even when the underlying interactions change substantially. This has led to a deep understanding of the quantum hall effect, the discovery and creation of topological insulators, the understanding of equatorial surface waves on the earth, the inevitability of Weyl fermions in quantum materials, and the observation of Majorana fermions, useful for quantum computing, in superconductors.

In this talk, after an extensive introduction to these ideas, I will present our recent results on the discovery of ubiquitous topologically protected Fermi surfaces in superconductors.