Josh Isaacson with Harsh Mathur

Large Scale Graphene Transistor Arrays

A fundamental principle of quantum mechanics is that all observables must be represented by hermitian operators. Until recently, it was believed that Quantum Mechanics could not be expressed in any manner, when Carl Bender found that it is possible to relax this assumption through what is known as PT symmetry.  Non-hermitian quantum mechanics allows us to consider new Hamiltonians originally considered to be not allowed.  In condensed matter physics there is a goal of discovering effective continuum descriptions of complex quantum phenomena in solids.  In this project, we will investigate if the new non-Hermitian quantum mechanics permits new boundary conditions on the electron wavefunction in a continuum description of solids would allow us to explain surface phenomena such as the bound states on the surface of topological insulators, which might otherwise require detailed lattice models for their description.