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Welcome to our website!
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This is the web page of the density-functional theory (DFT) group at the Physics
Institute on the São Carlos campus
(IFSC) of the
University of São Paulo (USP)
in Brazil.
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The city of São Carlos |
The campus |
The physics institute |
We are interested in understanding the structure and properties of matter.
Matter is composed of atoms, hold together by chemical bonds made from
electrons. How do we describe the atoms? How do we describe the electrons and
the bonds? What kinds of complex structures emerge from these ingredients and
how do we describe them? When is a microscopic, first-principles, description
viable, and when do we need to focus on higher levels of simplification
and model building? What models do we use, what are their properties, and
what can they teach us about the microscopic physics of complex systems?
Complete answers to these questions are not known to mankind, but they are
hidden in the underlying laws of quantum theory. Ever more precise and useful
partial answers emerge from the interdisciplinary work of quantum physics,
quantum chemistry, materials science and statistical
physics.
Our group is involved with this kind of interdisciplinary work on the
structure and properties of inhomogeneous interacting matter. Our main tool is
density-functional theory, which we supplement with a variety of other methods
from many-body and statistical physics and quantum
chemistry.
Translated into examples from everyday's experience, the complexity and beauty
of interacting inhomogeneous systems is illustrated by
the following sequence of images:
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| An inhomogeneous collection of noninteracting drops of water: rain |
A homogeneous assembly of many interacting drops of water: ocean |
An inhomogeneous system of many interacting drops of water: wave |
Replace "drops of water" by "electrons" or "atoms", and add the presence of
boundaries, confining potentials, defects and magnetic fields, and you have a
vivid picture of what we are interested in: complex inhomogeneous structures
emerging out of simple ingredients according to the laws of the quantum
mechanics of interacting
systems.
In addition to performing density-functional calculations for such properties
and systems, the main focus of our group is the development of novel
density-functional methods and approaches. A more
detailed list of ongoing research projects can be found be clicking on the
link "Research" to the left.
Some of the people involved in this research are shown in the picture below:
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| Click to enlarge |
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