Peter Holdsworth

peter.holdsworth@ens-lyon.fr

Professeur,

Laboratoire de Physique,

Ecole Normale Supérieure,

69364, Lyon France.

http://www.ens-lyon.fr/PHYSIQUE/

Institut Universitaire

de France (IUF)

http://iuf.amue.fr

Research

My interests lie in problems in condensed matter and statistical mechanics. Specialties include model magnetism, frustrated systems, phase transitions in confined geometry and finite size effects in correlated systems. Recently I have been working on models of “spin ice”, realized experimentally Holmium and Dysprosium Titanate. These materials are characterized by low energy magnetic excitations that “fractionalize” into quasi-particles carrying magnetic charge - magnetic monopoles. This Coulomb gas, in the grand canonical ensemble, shares many properties of a weak electrolyte - a “magnetolyte”.

Most recent: The Wien effect and monopole currents in spin ice (1, 2), monopole crystalization (3), an experimental example of order by disorder (4,4a), critical Casimir effect in magnetic thin films (5, 5a)

publications

Teaching

I am strongly committed to teaching at the ENS Lyon. Our flagship program, ”Sciences de la Matière”  in collaboration with Université Lyon1 includes Licence (B. Sc.) and Master degrees in physics and chemistry and is consistently classified A* by the AERES evaluation committee. Details of how to study in Lyon can be found on our web page.

Most recent: see my interview on “Campus Channel” TV for more on our degree program

previous courses include condensed matter (M1) (CM.pdf), critical phenomena (M2) (PT.pdf),  Electrons in interactions (M2)      , Thermodynamics (L3)