Palo Alto, CA, Mar. 8: Agilent Technologies Inc.
(NYSE:A)
today announced that the European Physical Society (EPS) has awarded the
2006 Agilent Europhysics Prize for Outstanding Achievement in Condensed
Matter Physics to four scientists for their development and application of
the Dynamical Mean Field Theory, which explains properties of materials that
previously had been poorly understood.
The honorees are Antoine Georges, Ecole
Polytechnique, France; Gabriel Kotliar, Rutgers, The State University of New
Jersey, United States; Walter Metzner, Max Planck Institute for Solid State
Research, Germany; and Dieter Vollhardt, Universitat Augsburg, Germany.
"We are proud to recognize these scientists
for discoveries that bring new understanding to the theory of solids," said
Jim Hollenhorst, director of molecular technology at Agilent Laboratories,
the company's central research organization.
The Europhysics Prize is one of the most
prestigious honors given by the EPS, with eight past awardees subsequently
winning the Nobel Prize.
Agilent has sponsored the Europhysics Prize
for 30 years (as Hewlett-Packard until 1999), based on the belief that
fundamental advances in science have the potential to revolutionize the way
people live and work. With a cash award of 51,000 Swiss francs from the
Agilent Foundation, the Prize recognizes scientific excellence and focuses
on work that advances the fields of electronic, electrical and materials
engineering. A committee appointed by the EPS selects the recipients.
The Prize will be awarded on Wednesday, March
29, 2006, 11:00 a.m., at the General Conference of the Condensed Matter
Division in Dresden, Germany:
www.cmd21.org/information/plenar.html.
Scientific Background of Dynamical Mean Field
Theory
During the past century, remarkable advances
in technology have often followed the development of new materials with
useful properties. For example, the revolution in electronics depends on the
ability to understand the physics of semiconductors and to design devices
that use their novel properties.
Theoretical techniques to understand and
predict the behavior of materials play an important role in realizing
technological advances. Although some materials have great potential for
applications, prevailing theoretical techniques have been inadequate. For
example, a complete theoretical understanding remains elusive in
high-temperature superconducting materials and in materials for advanced
magnetic storage devices.
Although the fundamental physical principles
that describe materials are well known, the application of these principles
is extremely complex. Even a small sample has huge numbers of interacting
particles, each affecting the motion of all the others. In particular,
electrons are strongly repelled by any nearby electrons. Because it is not
possible to account for the motions of all these particles in detail,
physicists have to make approximations.
One method is to assume that the electrons
traveling throughout the material are interacting weakly enough that it is
sufficient to treat each electron as if it is in an unchanging sea of other
electrons. Another approach is to assume that the electron-electron
repulsion dominates, causing the electrons to be strongly localized to
individual atoms. Unfortunately, some of the most interesting materials
cannot be understood either way.
Georges, Kotliar, Metzner, and Vollhardt have
developed and applied a new theoretical method called Dynamical Mean Field
Theory. This theory, in combination with other techniques, describes the
entire range of materials, encompassing weakly interacting and strongly
localized models within one framework, leading to remarkably accurate
predictions.
The winners of the Prize have applied their
new theory to many materials, explaining phenomena that had previously been
poorly understood, and making predictions that were subsequently verified by
experiment. They have created a rich new field of condensed matter physics
that will enable many important insights and discoveries in the years to
come.
