CCM Colloquium: Guillaume Bal

Wednesday Apr 24, 2024, 11:00 AM → 1:00 PM America/New_York

3rd Floor Classroom/3-Flatiron Institute (162 5th Avenue)

Presenter: Guillaume Bal (University of Chicago)

Title: Asymmetric interface transport and topological insulators

Abstract: The surprising robustness to perturbation of the asymmetric transport observed along interfaces separating distinct insulating bulks affords a topological origin. This talk reviews a classification of partial differential operators modeling such systems.  We establish a bulk-edge correspondence relating the quantized interface transport to the index of a Fredholm operator naturally associated to the insulating bulks. We also present a scattering theory that describes the interface transport more quantitatively. The theory is illustrated with examples of application in condensed matter physics and geophysics.