Grant: Discovery Grants Program - Individual

The major driving force of modern technology is research into new materials. Superconductors are one of the most important classes of materials, with a wide range of practical applications. In recent years the main focus of the research community has been on unconventional superconductors, such as high-temperature cuprates and ""heavy-fermion"" compounds, whose properties defy theoretical explanation. The main objective of this research proposal is to better understand such interesting novel materials as superconductors without inversion symmetry and ferromagnetic superconductors, and explain the experimental puzzles presented by them. In particular, we want to understand what microscopic mechanisms make these materials superconducting and how fluctuations affect nonuniform superconducting phases. We hope that the results of this research will also provide insight into the physics of other complex superconducting and superfluid systems. The broader impact resulting from the proposed activity will be training of a new generation of highly-qualified personnel through an exposure to a wide range of ideas and methods of contemporary condensed matter physics.