I am interested in various aspects of quantum phases of matter with strong electronic correlations. While I focus on developing appropriate theoretical descriptions of such states, I work in close connection with experiments on real materials.
Van der Waals heterstructures, particularly Moire bilayer and trilayer graphene, have gained a lot of attention of late because of correlated insulating behavior that gives way to superconductivity on doping. The critical temperature for superconductivity is quite high compared to the Fermi energy, raising hopes of new insights about the possible mechanism of superconductivity. My research tries to answer questions regarding the nature of the correlated insulating state and superconductivity in these materials.
I am also interested in studying topological phases of matter - quantum spin liquids in particular. In such phases, strong interactions are predicted to lead to fractionalization - where the electron splinters apart into separate charge and spin degrees of freedom. One active interest of mine is finding experimental techniques to detect these fractionalized excitations.
A lot of my graduate research had focused on the engimatic metallic phase of the high temperature copper-oxide (cuprate) superconductors. A thorough understanding of this pseudogap metal seems to be the key to figuring out the non-Fermi liquid behavior in the cuprates at optimal doping above the critical temperature, and is ultimately critical to solving the puzzle of high critical temperature in these materials.
In the past, I have also worked on problems in classical gravity, and hope to use this knowhow to attack condensed matter problems via holographic techniques.