Faculty of Physics

The department was formed in October 1993 as a result of the reorganization of the physics faculty. Presently the scientific activity of this young department is mainly concentrated around the experimental and theoretical research in quantum solid state but also includes a growing group of theoretical astrophysicists.

The newly established Braun Center for sub micron research is an integral part of the department. It is a modern and well equipped center which allows to conduct experiments on sub micron semiconductor structures as well as normal and high temperature superconductors.

T. Alexander

Stars very near massive black holes.

The Galactic Center.

Gravitational Lensing.

Active Galactic Nuclei.

http://www.weizmann.ac.il/condmat/alexander.html

I. Bar-Joseph

Optical spectroscopy of the two-dimensional electron gas in zero and strong magnetic fields.

Near field spectroscopy of semiconductor heterostructures.

Electron-hole complexes in quantum wells: Dynamics and steady state properties.

A. Finkelstein

Effects of the electron-electron interaction in low dimensional and disordered systems.

Metal-insulator transition in 2D conductors.

Magnetic fluctuations in high - Tc superconductors.

Y. Gefen

Quantum dots: Electron electron interaction and dissipation.

The quantum Hall effect.

Interference and tunneling in quantum mechanics.

Y. Gefen, Y. Imry

Dynamical effects, dissipation and thermodynamics in small quantum systems.

M. Heiblum

III-V semiconductors & their MBE growth.

Low dimensional mesoscopic structures.

Ballistic transport, interference and dephasing.

Temporal behavior via high frequency measurements.

Y. Imry

Effects of interaction on localization and on single-electron resonances. Many-electron effects and phase-shifts. Dephasing of Quantum interference in mesoscopics. Quantum noise and its detection. The effects of quantum fluctuations on superconductivity in very small systems. Special effects in nanoscale systems.

http://www.weizmann.ac.il/physics/staff/Imry.htm

Y. Imry, Y. Gefen

Mesoscopic physics: Spectral correlations, persistent currents, fluctuations, quantum interference effects on transport, including the localized phase.

Y. Levinson

Adiabatic transport in ballistic mesoscopic systems.

Nonequilibrium current noise and dephasing in mesoscopic systems.

http://www.weizmann.ac.il/physics/staff/levinson.htm

S. Levit

Quantum Hall effect: Integer and fractional; Chern-Simon' mean field theory; tunneling of anyons; edge states and excitations; composite bosons and fermions.

Non perturbative methods in Quantum Chromodynamics; random colormagnetic fields; matrix models with free random variables.

Quantum Chaos (small disordered systems) and Interactions.

Statistics of quasiparticle levels and wave functions in interacting quantum dots. Spin effects. Random matrix theory, supersymmetry and replica methods for the description of such systems.

Controlled decoherence of mesoscopic systems. Coupled dephasor-dephasee pairs.

Controlled decoherence of various quantum phenomena such as tunneling, Fano resonances, Berry phases, quantum pumps, Anderson localization, etc.

M. Milgrom

Departure from Newtonian dynamics as an explanation of the dark-matter problem in galactic systems.

High energy astrophysics: x-ray sources, gamma-ray sources.

Y. Oreg

1. The transmission phase shift through a quantum dot that is coupled to leads and forms a many body state (known as the Kondo resonance) is calculated. This work is related to experimental studies at the Braun Center for Submicron Research at the Weizmann Institute of Science.
   A generalization of Hund’s rules to disordered dots.
2. Several aspects of disorder superconductors and normal metal - superconducting junctions are studied, including the interplay between bosons and fermions in this system.

3. Luttinger liquids in one-dimensional systems.

4. Bi-layer systems.

http://www.weizmann.ac.il/condmat/oreg_group.html

D. Shahar

Experiments on materials at ultra low-temperatures.

Fractional and integer quantum Hall effect and related phenomena.

Quantum phase transitions: General transport studies and mesoscopics of the metal-insulator, superconductor-insulator and other transitions.

A. Stern

Quantum Hall effect and composite fermion theory. Electronic transport in strong magnetic fields. Non-abelian quantum Hall states.

Low density two dimensional electronic systems.

Double layer electronic systems.

V. Usov

Physical processes in very strong magnetic fields.

Physical processes in relativistic electron-positron plasma.

Physical processes at the surface and astrophysical appearance of strange-quark-matter stars.

The theory of nonthermal radiation from compact astronomical objects (pulsars, white dwarfs, gamma-ray bursters etc.).

Hydrodynamics and high-energy physics of colliding stellar winds in binary systems.

E. Waxman

High energy astrophysics:

Gamma-ray bursts: Origin and underlying physics.

Ultra-high energy cosmic-rays.

High energy neutrinos from astrophysical sources.

A. Yacoby

Electrostatic imaging of the quantum Hall effect and the 2D metal-insulator transition.

Transport in quantum wires.

Interference and dephasing of composite Fermions.

E. Zeldov

High-temperature superconductivity.

Vortex dynamics.

Vortex matter phase transitions.

Magneto-optical imaging.