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 Physics at Virginia

Gia-Wei Chern

Ph.D., 2008, Johns Hopkins University
Associate Professor

Theoretical Condensed Matter Physics

Research Interests

My primary research interests are in theoretical condensed matter physics with a special focus on strongly correlated electron systems. A central theme of my research is concerned with the following two questions: (i) What kind of emergent phases and collective behaviors are possible in a many-body system ? and (ii) What are their experimental manifestations ? Our approach to strongly correlated systems is based on a combination of model building, analytical calculation, and numerical simulations. Find out more about my research.

Selected Publications

G.-W. Chern, K. Barros, C. D. Batista, J. Kress, and G. Kotliar, Mott Transition in a Metallic Liquid: Gutzwiller Molecular Dynamics Simulations, Physical Review Letters 118, 226401 (2017).

G.-W. Chern and A. Saxena, PT-symmetric phase in kagome photonic latticesOptics Letters 40, pp.5806-5809 (2015)

G.-W. Chern, C. Reichhardt, C. Nisoli, Realizing three-dimensional artificial spin ice by stacking planar nano-arraysApplied Physics Letters 104, 013101 (2014)

I. Gilbert, G.-W. Chern, S. Zhang, L. O'Brien, B. Fore, C. Nisoli, and P. Schiffer, Emergent ice rule and magnetic charge screening from vertex frustration in articial spin ice, Nature Physics 10, 670–675 (2014) .

S. Zhang, I. Gilbert, C. Nisoli, G.-W. Chern, M. J. Erickson, L. O'Brien, C. Leighton, P. E. Lammert, V. H. Crespi, and P. Schiffer,  Crystallites of magnetic charges in artificial spin iceNature 500, p.553-557 (2013) .

G.-W. Chern, M. J. Morrison, C. Nisoli, Degeneracy and criticality from emergent frustration in artificial spin ice, Physical Review Letters 111, 177201 (2013)

G.-W. Chern, S. Maiti, R. M. Fernandes, Peter Wolfle, Electronic transport in the Coulomb phase of the pyrochlore spin ice, Physical Review Letters 110, 146602 (2013)

G.-W. Chern, R. Moessner, Dipolar order by disorder in the classical Heisenberg antiferromagnet on the kagome lattice, Physical Review Letters 110, 077201 (2013)

G.-W. Chern, Congjun Wu, Four-coloring model and frustrated superfluidity in the diamond lattice, Physical Review Letters 112, 020601 (2014)

G.-W. Chern, C. D. Batista, Spontaneous quantum Hall effect via a thermally induced quadratic Fermi point, Physical Review Letters 109, 156801 (2012)

G.-W. Chern, P. Mellado, and O. Tchernyshyov, Two-stage ordering of spins in a dipolar spin ice on the kagome latticePhysical Review Letters 106, 207202 (2011)

G.-W. Chern,  Noncoplanar magnetic ordering driven by itinerant electrons on the pyrochlore latticePhysical Review Letters 105, 226403 (2010)

G.-W. Chern and P. Mellado, Magnetic monopole polarons in artificial spin ices, Europhysics Letters 114, 37004 (2016).

G.-W. Chern, C.-C. Chien, and M. Di Ventra, Dynamically generated flat-band phases in optical kagome lattices, Physical Reivew A 90, 013609 (2014)

G.-W. Chern, N. B. Perkins, Z. Hao,  Quantum 120o model on pyrochlore lattice: orbital ordering in MnV2O4, Physical Review B 81, 125127 (2010).

G.-W. Chern, C. J. Fennie, and O. Tchernyshyov,  Broken parity and a chiral ground state in the frustrated magnet CdCr2O4Physical Review B 74, 060405(R) (2006)

G.-W. Chern, and Congjun Wu, Orbital ice: p-band Mott-insulators on the diamond lattice, Physical Review E 84, 061127 (2011).

G.-W. Chern, C. Reichhardt, and C. J. Olson Reichhardt, Frustrated colloidal ordering and fully packed loops in arrays of optical traps, Physical Review E 87, 062305 (2013).

G.-W. Chern, K.-H. Lin, C.-K. Sun, Transmission of light through quantum heterostructures modulated by coherent acoustic phonons, Journal of Applied Physics 95, 1114 (2004).

News Items

In a paramagnet such as common salt or a piece of aluminum the number of electrons that align with an external magnetic field, H, increases linearly initially with field.  But as ......More >
Two separate teams lead by Condensed Matter physicists Bellave Shivaram and Gia-Wei Chern have won awards in the recent round of funding from the More >
Researchers at UVa found a way through strain engineering to manipulate the electronic band structure, and induce large, reversible response of the magnetoresistive properties under high ......More >
Understanding how memory emerges from a complex network of neurons in our brain remains a challenging task in cognitive science.  Memory also arises in physical systems with complex energy ......More >