About

Project Leader
Norio Kawakami

Recent years have seen a tremendous growth of interest in topological quantum phenomena. Especially, remarkable progress has been made in understanding the essence of topological insulators and superconductors. However, quite a few issues still remain unexplored. In particular, (1) clarifying effects of interactions between electrons which would lead to diversity and functionality of materials, (2) exploring topological materials based on symmetry of crystals, and (3) systematic control of artificial topological phases in nanostructured systems, are indispensable for developing novel materials and establishing the fundamental concepts.

Following the remarkable achievements of the previous project "Topological Quantum Phenomena" (Project Leader: Yoshi Maeno, 2010-2014), this project aims at developing novel quantum phenomena caused by interaction, symmetry of crystals and nanostructure of semiconductors, with particular emphasis on topological nature of materials, and investigate exotic quasiparticles inherent in the topological quantum phenomena. A significant feature of this project is our ambition to unify the basic concepts on topological phenomena found in different fields of condensed matter physics, and to provide a new versatile platform in materials science which can treat a variety of topological phenomena in the same framework.

By performing this project systematically, we will be able to solve the problems which have not been addressed in the preceding studies in each field, and stimulate the collaborations among different fields. This project will not only establish the basic notions of topological phenomena in condensed matter, but will also stimulate other research fields where the notion of topology will certainly become important in the near future.

In this project, we put particular emphasis on nurturing young researchers and promoting international collaboration: we introduce a special program to stimulate young researchers and international alliance workshops. In particular, we are going to establish the International Research Network on Topological Quantum Matter (Topo-Q network), which includes the research projects such as "CIFAR Quantum Materials (Canada)", "Emergent Phenomena in Quantum Systems" (EPiQS, Moore Foundation, USA), as well as the institutes such as Max-Planck Institutes (Germany), Shanghai Center for Complex Physics (SCCP, China), etc. The Topo-Q network will certainly provide an invaluable platform where many researchers exchange their ideas and promote mutual understanding on topological materials science.