Quantum Crystals, Quantum Choreography and Quantum Computing Matthew P. A. Fisher, Professor of Physics, University of California, Santa Barbara

Seething within each nature’s crystals is an exotic quantum world of electrons dancing and twirling about one another. Each crystal has its own unique choreography, as varied as the crystals themselves. In some crystals the electron dancing patterns are structured and orderly. Within others the electrons are seemingly entangled in a fluctuating web of dizzying quantum motion. In this talk I will describe the ongoing efforts to discern the “quantum choreography” that underlies even the most intricate of nature’s electron dances, and to perhaps ultimately harness such understanding to design a futuristic “topological” quantum computer.