Frustration & Topology ...

... are the corner stones of our research program. Frustration refers to the property of a physical system that it is impossible to simultaneously fulfill all boundary conditions (or to simultaneously minimize all contributions to the energy). Topology is a mathematical concept describing global properties of structures which are invariant under continuous deformations.

In modern many-particle physics, frustration and topology are important sources for unconventional behavior of matter. The discovery and investigation of such behavior form the central goals of our collaborative research center.