Senthil Todadri
Research Interests
Senthil’s research seeks to develop a theoretical framework for describing the physics of novel quantum many particle systems by combining phenomenological modeling of experiments with abstract theoretical ideas and methods. Examples of specific topics include:
– Non-fermi liquid metals
– moire materials
– Non-Landau quantum criticality
– Dualities in field theories of quantum many body systems
– Interacting topological insulators
– Quantum spin liquids
Senthil’s work on discrete gauge theories in models of spin liquid states provided key insights and initiated the systematic investigation of gauge structures in many-body systems, now a vital subfield of condensed matter physics. He pioneered the theory of deconfined quantum criticality which describes a class of phase transitions that are beyond the standard Landau paradigm. Senthil is also known for developing a theory of continuous electronic Mott metal-insulator transitions, and for discovering dualities of quantum field theories in two space dimensions which has had application to many problems in condensed matter physics.
He has a long-standing interest in the theory of non-fermi liquid metals: he introduced the concept of a fractionalized Fermi liquid, and showed that its phase transition to an ordinary fermi liquid is an interesting non-fermi liquid critical point. He characterized the emergent symmetry and its anomaly of a wide class of translation invariant metals (that include fermi liquids). The emergent symmetry and its anomaly capture several universal properties of the low energy physics independently of the detailed dynamics.
A recent interest is in the physics of moire heterostructures: Senthil played a crucial role in recognizing that these systems bring together strong correlation and band topology. His group predicted that moire graphene systems are a suitable platform for ferromagnetism and a (fractional) quantum anomalous Hall effect which have since been seen in experiments.
In his early work, Senthil identified certain two dimensional superconducting states as showing spin and thermal quantum hall effects (a phenomenon that has subsequently been dubbed chiral topological superconductivity).
Biographical Sketch
Senthil received his undergraduate degree from the Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur in 1992, and his PhD from Yale University in 1997. He then moved to a postdoctoral position at the Kavli Institute of Theoretical Physics in UC Santa Barbara before joining the physics faculty at MIT in 2001. His interests span a wide range of theoretical quantum condensed matter physics.
Senthil is a member of the National Academy of Sciences (2024), the American Academy of Arts and Sciences (2023), a Simons Investigator (2013-2023) of the Simons Foundation, a Distinguished Visiting Research Chair (2011-2024) at the Perimeter Institute of Theoretical Physics, and a Fellow of the American Physical Society (2013).
How can electrons can split into fractions of themselves?
Physicists surprised to discover electrons in pentalayer graphene can exhibit fractional charge. New study suggests how this could work.
Awards & Honors
- 2024 // Highly Cited Researcher in Physics, Clarivate Web of Science
- 2024 // Distinguished Alumnus Award, Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur
- 2024 // Elected member, National Academy of Sciences
- 2023 // "Frontiers of Science" award
- 2023 // Elected member, American Academy of Arts and Sciences
- 2022 // Highly cited researcher (cross-field), Clarivate Web of Science
- 2015 // Subrahmanyam Chandrasekhar Lecturer, International Center for Theoretical Sciences
- 2013 // American Physical Society Fellow "for insights into exotic phases of matter and phase transitions beyond the Landau paradigm."
- 2013-23 // Simons Investigator Award
- 2012-13 // Simons Theoretical Physics Fellowship
- 2011-24 // Distinguished Visiting Research Chair, Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics
- 2011 // Kavli Frontiers Fellow, Kavli Foundation
- 2009 // Outstanding Young Physicist Award, American chapter of the Indian Physics Association
- 2005 // Outstanding Investigator Award, Science Research Council of the Department of Atomic Energy, India
- 2003 // Research Innovation Award, The Research Corporation
- 2002 // NEC Corporate Fund Award, MIT
- 2002 // Sloan Research Fellowship
Key Publications
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Phase transitions out of quantum Hall states in moiré materials, Xue-Yang Song, Ya-Hui Zhang, and T. Senthil, Phys. Rev. B 109, 085143 (2024).
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Non-Fermi Liquids from Kinetic Constraints in Tilted Optical Lattices, Ethan Lake and T. Senthil, Phys. Rev. Lett. 131, 043403 (2023).
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Non-Fermi Liquids as Ersatz Fermi Liquids: General Constraints on Compressible Metals, Dominic V. Else, Ryan Thorngren, and T. Senthil, Phys. Rev. X 11, 021005 (2021) .
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Nearly Flat Chern Bands in Moiré Superlattices, Ya-Hui Zhang, Dan Mao, Yuan Cao, Pablo Jarillo-Herrero, T. Senthil, Phys. Rev. B 99, 075127 (2019).