I.F.T.

Almuerzo-Seminario

(Lunch seminar)

May 16th 2000, 15:00 p.m.

Conformal Field Theory and the Exact Solution of the BCS Hamiltonian

Germán Sierra

(IMAFF, CSIC)

The reduced BCS Hamiltonian was solved exactly by Richardson in 1963 and its integrability was proved recently. This exact solution has been largely ignored by the physics community until the recent developments in the study of superconducting grains with nanoscopic size. In this talk we shall present the connection between the Richardson's exact solution and Conformal Field Theory (CFT), which gives a unified approach to this problem. The relevant CFT is given by the SU(2) Wess-Zumino-Witten model in the limit where the level k goes to minus infinity. The construction is reminiscent of the CFT approach to the Fractional Quantum Hall effect.

Where: Modulo C-XVI, 3rd floor, Facultad de Ciencias U.A.M., C.U. Cantoblanco, 28049-Madrid