PHYSICS DISSERTATION DEFENSE: Connie Mousatov

Ph.D. Candidate:  Connie Mousatov

Research Advisor:  Sean Hartnoll

Date: Tuesday, June 1, 2021
Time: 10:15AM

Zoom Link: https://stanford.zoom.us/j/97858507888

Zoom Password: email mariaf67 [at] stanford.edu (mariaf67[at]stanford[dot]edu)

Title: Two Theories of Strange and Bad Metals

Abstract: 

The behavior of the strongly correlated "strange" and "bad" metals have eluded theoretical understanding for some time. They exhibit anomalous transport and thermodynamic properties that defy typical predictions according to the quasiparticle picture of Fermi liquid theory.  

In this talk, I will first discuss a theory for the widely studied strange metal, strontium ruthenate. Specifically, strontium ruthenate contains “hot” electrons that are less quantum mechanical than the other “cold” electrons. A scattering process in which a cold electron becomes hot after colliding with a second cold electron is unusually strong. This fact is seen to underpin the strange metallicity of strontium ruthenate. I will also discuss a tractable microscopic model for bad metals, by supplementing the well-known Hubbard model with a screened Coulomb interaction. Throughout the phase diagram, we observe T-linear resistivity above the Mott-Ioffe-Regel limit. At intermediate temperatures, this arises from a cancellation between the nontrivial temperature dependence of both diffusivities and thermodynamic susceptibilities.