Vos, Kenneth

The main focus of his research is theoretical condensed matter, in particular the study of strongly correlated electron systems. Strongly correlated electron systems (SCES) refer to an enormous number of different materials such as high temperature superconductors and many different and interesting physical phenomena, which makes the study of them one of the most interesting and challenging areas of physics today. These materials are used in all areas of society such as hard drives in computers and cellular communications. We are doing basic research in order to improve our understanding of these materials and their properties. Improvements in current applications and the discovery of new applications of these materials come from our increased understanding of these materials. Part of our understanding of these materials comes from theoretically modeling the materials. The model will change depending on what physics is determined to be important. From these models we can then predict how the material will behave for example when the temperature changes or an electrical current passes through it. These predictions can be compared to experimental data and allow us to determine which theoretical model is valid for a given material, revealing important information about the physics of the system. Hence, an important part of our research is to test the theoretical models that have been proposed to describe these materials. In addition, I am studying the anisotropies of the Copper Oxide based compounds, which will give an explanation of certain physical features that the isotropic models cannot explain. The anisotropic effects arise because the SCES are not perfectly symmetric. The inclusion of anisotropic effects in our models will allow us to explain some of the physical properties that change as a function of doping.