Erhai Zhao

Assistant Professor   Condensed Matter Theory

For teaching/course information, follow the navigation bar "Teaching" on the left.

Our research focuses on two areas, the many body physics of ultracold quantum gases, and quantum transport in nano-scale devices. It is currently supported by

  • Air Force Office of Scientific Research
  • National Institute of Standards and Technology
  • National Science Fundation
We have positions open for graduate students (GRA). Please contact ezhao2 "at" gmu.edu if you are interested in doing research in condensed matter theory.

Research Highlights

Quadrupolar Fermi gas
What are the many-body phases of fermions with quadrupole-quadrupole interaction? Our exact calculation in the weak-coupling limit reveals. Phys. Rev. Lett. 110, 155301 (2013)

A topological ladder
On a two-leg ladder, the orbital hopping pattern of fermions leads to a topological insulating phase. Our result is now published in Nature Communications, doi:10.1038/ncomms2523.

New phase of matter: Bond order solid
Interacting fermions with dipole moments form solids with periodic modulations of bonds, rather than density. Our paper appeared in Phys. Rev. Lett. 108, 145301 (2012).

Nearly flat dispersion
The group velocity of quasiparticles slows down from "speed of light" to a snail pace of almost zero in a hybrid structure of superconductor and topological insulator. Phys. Rev. B 86, 161108 (2012)

Hidden topology
Fingerprint of quantum Hall insulators hiding in time-of-flight images. Phys. Rev. A 84, 063629(2011)