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Condensed Matter Physics

This interdisciplinary field touches on many aspects of physics and has strong overlap with chemistry and engineering science. Physicists have always been at the forefront of the study of new materials and this has led both to a fundamental understanding of their properties as well as revolutionary applications. Examples of materials studied at ¶¡ÏãÔ°AV include novel superconductors, graphene, semiconductor and magnetic nanostructures, topological quantum materials, as well as soft materials (see Soft Matter Physics area). Materials research in the physics department includes studies in fundamental theory, as well as strong efforts in the growth of new materials in addition to the development of novel methods for device fabrication and analysis of electrical, structural and optical properties. Materials researchers make heavy use of interdisciplinary facilities including TRIUMF and the ¶¡ÏãÔ°AV 4D LABS, as well as a wide range of specialized tools.

Particle Physics / Cosmology

The ¶¡ÏãÔ°AV experimental High Energy Physics group plays a leading role in the CERN-based ATLAS collaboration which discovered the long-sought Higgs boson in 2012 — the most significant discovery in particle physics in almost 40 years. We continue to study and learn more about the properties of the Higgs boson, search for signs of new Physics using so-called Long-Lived Particles, and make instrumental contributions in preparing the detector for these results (e.g. energy calibration, particle track and vertex reconstruction algorithms). The ¶¡ÏãÔ°AV group has also led major computing projects, in particular the ATLAS-Canada Tier-1 Data Centre, helping to develop the international computing grid to analyze the huge amount of data produced by ATLAS. The ¶¡ÏãÔ°AV gorup is also a major player in Canada for building components for the ATLAS New Inner Tracking Detector (ITk) - with production sites at ¶¡ÏãÔ°AV and TRIUMF - to maintain and enhance the discovery potential of the experiment during the scheduled High-Luminosity LHC. We also have an active experimental high-energy neutrino program related to the Pacific Ocean Neutrino Experiment, a new initiative to construct one of the world’s largest neutrino detectors in the deep Pacific Ocean off the coast of British Columbia.

Theoretical cosmology and astroparticle research at ¶¡ÏãÔ°AV concerns a broad range of topics including black holes, inflation, dark energy, modified gravity, topological defects, primordial magnetic fields, dark matter candidates and neutrinos, with the focus on phenomenology and developing methods and numerical tools for testing new theoretical ideas against data from astronomical surveys, gravitational wave observatories and particle detectors. ¶¡ÏãÔ°AV faculty are members of international collaborations working on cosmic microwave background experiments, namely, the Planck satellite team, the Simons Observatory and CMB-S4. Theoretical and numerical tools for cosmological tests of gravity developed at ¶¡ÏãÔ°AV are used by large-scale galaxy surveys collaborations, such as the Sloan Digital Sky Survey, Dark Energy Survey, Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument and others.

Theory

Theoretical Physics research at ¶¡ÏãÔ°AV is concerned with gaining insight into the properties of matter from sub-atomic length scales to the scale of the universe itself, and with understanding the properties of novel materials and biological systems. Theorists at ¶¡ÏãÔ°AV collaborate with other theorists, and with experimentalists at ¶¡ÏãÔ°AV, within Canada and internationally, to understand and explain their data and make predictions for future experiments. These efforts encompass all of the research areas of the department: Quantum Information, Atomic, Molecular and Optical Physics, Condensed Matter Physics, Cosmology, and Biophysics. The groups use a wide range of techniques, including quantum field theory, statistical mechanics and extensive numerical simulations using high performance computing.