• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer
UT Shield
The Center for Complex Quantum Systems
  • About CQS
  • CQS Seminars
  • CQS Faculty
    • Professor and Director Allan H. MacDonald
    • Professor and Co-Director Linda E. Reichl
    • Assistant Professor Junyeong Ahn
    • Assistant Professor Edoardo Baldini
    • Professor James Chelikowsky, Jr.
    • Professor Alex Demkov
    • Professor Feliciano Giustino
    • Professor Daniel Heinzen
    • Assistant Professor Nick Hunter-Jones
    • Assistant Professor Matteo Ippoliti
    • Adjunct Professor Paul Kunz
    • Associate Professor Keji Lai
    • Professor Xiaoqin (Elaine) Li
    • Professor John T. Markert
    • Assistant Professor Mit Naik
    • Sr. Research Scientist Tomio Y. Petrosky
    • Professor Mark Raizen
    • Professor Chih-Kang (Ken) Shih
    • Professor Maxim Tsoi
    • Associate Professor Zhen Yao
    • CQS Email Directory
  • History of CQS
  • Email Directory

Highlights

April 2, 2024, Filed Under: Highlights

About Allan MacDonald

Professor and Director


Curriculum Vitae
MacDonald Group
Alumni

Graphene
Graphene is an atomically two-dimensional electron system made of a single layer of carbon atoms arranged on a honeycomb lattice. Interest in graphene has exploded in recent years because of the achievements of experimental research groups at the University of Manchester and Columbia University who have managed to isolate graphene layers and measure their electrical properties. At low-energies graphene is described by relativistic quantum mechanics with the role of spin played by the psedospin degree of freedom associated with the two atoms in the honeycomb lattice unit cell. Our theoretical research has concentrated on interaction effects in the quantum Hall effect of graphene, which have so far been mainly the appearance of SU(4) quantum Hall ferromagnetism, and on the differences between the Fermi liquid properties of graphene and an ordinary non-relativistic two-dimensional electron system in a quantum well.

Phase diagram for SU(4) quantum Hall ferromagnetism in the n=0 and n-1 Landau levels of graphene. Phys. Rev. Lett. 96, 256602 (2006).

Metal Spintronics
Ferromagnetism in transition metals and transition metal compounds has been studied for decades and is the basis for much of a major applied physics subfield, magnetism and magnetic materials. These materials are nonetheless remarkable because the ordered state is remarkably robust, surviving well beyond room temperatures. Metal spintronics is the study of the interplay between magnetic and transport properties in these materials. The major topic in metal spintronics over recent years has been current-induced-torque phenomena, mainly spin-transfer phenomena, in which the magnetic order parameter can be manipulated by the altered exchange fields of a metal which carries current. Our research has focused on a microscopic picture of the effect which suggests that it is much more general than had previously been supposed. We have predicted current induced torques in antiferromagnetic metals, for example, which appear to have been seen in recent experiments.

Cold Atom Systems
Over the past several years an area of theory has built up at the intersection of condensed-matter and atomic physics. Atomic physicists have learned to cool clouds of atoms to extremely low temperature where they behave as quantum particles. By taking advantage of atomic physics phenomena like Feshbach resonances and optical potentials, it is possible to create systems of strongly interacting quantum atoms. In other words these atomic vapors act behave like condensed matter systems and not like gaseous vapors. These cold atoms systems can be used to address some of the most difficult problems in condensed matter physics from both experimental and theoretical points of view. Some of the problems that are being studied in our group include rapidly rotating bosons (the boson quantum Hall effect), fermionic atom systems near a Feshbach resonance, and quasi-one-dimensional atomic systems.

Quantum Hall Systems
The quantum Hall effect occurs in two-dimensional electron systems that are confined to a quantum well or a heterojunction in a semiconductor when the system is placed in a perpendicular magnetic field. The quantum Hall regime has been the source of a multitude of new phenomena in condensed matter physics for over twenty years. The quantum Hall regime is special because cyclotron orbit kinetic energy is quantized. All electrons must lie in macroscopically degenerate Landau levels. (Landau levels are sets of orbitals with the same kinetic energy.) Landau level degeneracy enhances the importance of both interactions and disorder and can lead to ground states with very novel properties, most notably perhaps to states with quasiparticles that have fractional charge and fractional statistics. Recent work in the group has focused either on excitonic superfluidity in quantum Hall systems or on the properties of the one-dimensional electron systems that exist at quantum Hall edges.

An electron-electron bilayer system in a strong magnetic field is equivalent to an electron-hole bilayer. Nature 432, 691 (2004).

Nanoparticles
Physicists and chemists have developed a wide variety of different techniques that can be used to create and study either individual or arrays of condensed matter particles that have an overall size that in the nanometer range, so-called nanoparticles. A typical nanoparticle contains from 100 to 10000 atoms. In some cases it has been possible to make electrical contact to an individual nanoparticle. In our group we have been interested in what happens to bulk ferromagnetism in the nanoparticle limit, and in transport through arrays of either paramagnetic or ferromagnetic particles.

Planar projection of the total Berry curvature for a 25-atom nanoparticle. Phys. Rev. Lett. 91, 046805 (2003).

June 11, 2021, Filed Under: Highlights

Books by Center Members

Center for Complex Quantum Systems
Formerly The Ilya Prigogine Center for Studies in Statistical Mechanics and Complex Systems

Materials Fundamentals of Gate Dielectrics, (Springer, 2005).
by A. A. Demkov and A. Navrotsky, editors.
CMOS Gate-Stack Scaling – Materials, Interfaces and Reliability Implications, Materials Research Society Symposium, Vol. 1155 (MRS, Warrendale, 2009).
by A. A. Demkov, B. Taylor, H. R. Harris, J.W. Butterbaugh, and W. Rachmady, editors.
Integration of Functional Oxides with Semiconductors, (Springer, 2014).
by A. A. Demkov and A.B. Posadas.
Thin Films on Si: Electronic and Photonic Applications, (World Scientific, 2016).
by M. Frank, V. Narayanan and A. A. Demkov, editors.
Handbook of Molecular Beam Epitaxy of Oxide Materials. (In 3 Volumes), (World Scientific, 2025).
by A. A. Demkov, editor.
The Transition to Chaos: Conservative Classical and Quantum Systems
by Linda Reichl
Springer, 2021
3rd Edition
ISBN: 978-3-030-63533-6. Order this book online from Amazon. A thorough, comprehensive discussion of classical and quantum chaos theory with applications ranging from atomic dynamics to the structure of galaxies. Specific discussions include mechanisms for the onset of classical and quantum chaos, KAM theory, classical and quantum scattering theory for chaotic systems, Arnol’d diffusion in classical and quantum systems, random matrix theory, thermalization of quantum systems. The dynamics of atomic and molecular systems in the presence of time-periodic radiation fields Text is self-contained and appendices help provide much of the needed background in mathematics.
Nonequilibrium Dynamics of Collective Excitations in Quantum Materials
by Edoardo Baldini
Springer, 2018
ISBN: 3030084698. Order this book online from Springer. This book explores the nonequilibrium dynamics of collective excitations in quantum materials through the framework of ultrafast optical spectroscopy. Special emphasis is given to the relationship between collective modes and fundamental materials properties, instabilities, and phase transitions.
A Modern Course In Statistical Physics
by Linda E. Reichl
Wiley-VCH, 2016
4th Edition, 482 pages ISBN: ISBN: 978-3-527-41349-2. Order this book online from Wiley-VCH. A Modern Course in Statistical Physics is a textbook that illustrates the foundations of equilibrium and non-equilibrium statistical physics, and the universal nature of thermodynamic processes, from the point of view of contemporary research problems.
The Transition to Chaos
Conservative Classical Systems and Quantum Manifestations

by Linda E. Reichl
Springer-Verlag, New York, 2004
2nd Edition, 675 pages ISBN: 0-387-98788-6. Order this book online from Springer-Verlag. Based on courses given at The University of Texas at Austin and University of California at San Diego, this book treats an active fields of research that touches upon the foundations of physics and chemistry.
Uncertainty and Surprise in Complex Systems
editors: Reuben R. McDaniel Jr. and Dean J. Driebe
Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg, 2005
200 pages ISBN: 3-540-23773-9. Order this book online from Springer. The papers in this volume were first presented at the conference, “Uncertainty and Surprise: Questions on Working with the Unexpected and Unknowable,” held April 10-12, 2003 at the McCombs School of Business at The University of Texas at Austin.
Is Future Given?
by Ilya Prigogine
World Scientific Publishing Co., Singapore, November 2003
160 pages ISBN: 981-238-507-X. Order this book online from World Scientific. In this book, after discussing the fundamental problems of current science and other philosophic concepts, beginning with controversies between Heraclitus and Parmenides, Ilya Prigogine launches into a message of great hope: the future has not been determined.
The Transition to Chaos
In Conservative Classical Systems: Quantum Manifestations

by L.E. ReichlSpringer-Verlag, New York, 1992
Hardcover–551 pp.
ISBN: 0387977538. Order this book online from Fatbrain.com. The book on chaos that is becoming a modern classic. A perfect introduction to the fundamental concepts of chaos, including perturbation theory, nonlinear resonances, and nonintegrable systems. The reader will learn about basic mapping techniques and stochasticity. The quantum section includes a detailed introduction to Floquet theory and the delta-kicked rotor.
Classical Relativistic Many-Body Dynamics
by Matthew A. Trump and W. C. SchieveKluwer Academic Publishers, Dordrecht, The Netherlands, 1999
Hardcover–365 pp. 92 illustrations
ISBN: 079235737X. Order this book online from Amazon.com. Find out more about this book. The first book that explains in detail the world-time theory of motion for relativistic particles with mutual interaction. Learn how field theory is essentially limited to one-body motion, and how a 1941 classical model of pair annihilation may at last allow the dynamical description of systems of two or more particles. Several experimental tests are suggested. This book is chock-full of new research opportunities for graduate students and researchers into relativity.
Fully Chaotic Maps and Broken Time Symmetry
by Dean J. Driebe Kluwer Academic Publishers, Dordrecht, The Netherlands, 1999
Hardcover
ISBN: 0792355644. Order this book online from Amazon.com. A must-have book on dynamical maps. The book is an excellent graduate-level introduction to the use of maps to describe irreversible physical systems.
The End of Certainty: Time, Chaos, and the New Laws of Nature
by Ilya Prigogine, Nobel Laureate The Free Press, N.Y., 1997
Hardcover–240 pp.
ISBN: 0684837056. Order this book online from Amazon.com. Dr. Prigogine is world-renowned not only for his contributions to physical science, but also for his ability to explain complex ideas in terms that anyone can understand. This acclaimed book, written for readers of all ability levels and backgrounds, is a superb introduction to the meaning and implications of chaos and irreversiblity in the natural world, including the question of our perception of time.
Modern Thermodynamics: from Heat Engines to Dissipative Structures
by Dilip Kondepudi and Ilya Prigogine John Wiley & Sons, N.Y., 1997
Hardcover–508 pp.
ISBN: 0471973939. Answers to exercises and solutions. Order this book online from Amazon.com or J. Wiley & Sons
Exploring Complexity: An Introduction
by Grégoire Nicolis and Ilya Prigogine
W. H. Freeman and Co., N.Y., 1989
Hardcover–313 pp.
ISBN: 0716718596. Order this book online from Amazon.com.
Order Out of Chaos
by Isabel Stengers and Ilya Prigogine
Bantam Books, N.Y., 1986
Paperback
ISBN: 0553343637. Order this book online from Amazon.com.
Nonlinear Dynamics and Evolutionary Economics
by Richard Day and Ping Chen eds.
Oxford University Press, Oxford, 1993
Hardcover
ISBN: 0195078594. Order this book online from Amazon.com.
Economic Complexity and Equilibrium Illusion: Essays on Market Instability and Macro Vitality
by Ping Chen
Routledge, London, 2010
Hardcover
ISBN: 0415746841. Order this book online from BiggerBooks.com.
Methods and Finance: A Unifying View on Finance, Mathematics and Philosophy
by Emiliano Ippoliti and Ping Chen
Springer, 2017
Paperback
ISBN: 3319498711. Order this book online from Amazon.com.

  

June 9, 2021, Filed Under: Highlights

Student Achievements

Dongseob Kim received a Graduate School Summer 2021 Fellowship, awarded June 2021.

Zhida Liu received a Graduate School Summer 2021 Fellowship, awarded June 2021.

Zhaodong Chu received a Thesis Writing Fellowship, Spring of 2021.

Madisen Holbrook received the Outstanding Dissertation Award, Spring of 2021.

Ashish Gangshettiwar received a GSII/PGEF 2018 Cohort Fellowship, 2020-2021 academic year.

May 3, 2021, Filed Under: Highlights

About Ilya Prigogine


The Ilya Prigogine Center for Studies in Statistical Mechanics and Complex Systems
(recently renamed Center for Complex Quantum Systems)

Short Biography of Ilya Prigogine

Ilya Prigogine was awarded the Nobel Prize in chemistry in 1977 for his contributions to nonequilibrium thermodynamics, particularly the theory of dissipative structures. He was born in Moscow, Russia on January 25, 1917. He obtained both his undergraduate and graduate education in chemistry at the Universite Libre de Bruxelles. He was Regental Professor and Ashbel Smith Professor of Physics and Chemical Engineering at the University of Texas at Austin. In 1967, he founded the Center for Statistical Mechanics, later renamed the Ilya Prigogine Center for Studies in Statistical Mechanics and Complex Systems. Since 1959, he was the director of the International Solvay Institutes in Brussels, Belgium. In 1989, Prigogine was awarded the title of Viscount by the King of Belgium. He was a member of 64 national and professional organizations, among which are the National Academy of Sciences and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. The most recent of Prigogine’s many international activities were Special Advisor to the European Community in Brussels, Belgium and Honorary Member of the World Commission of Culture and Development of UNESCO, chaired by Perez de Cuellar.

The main theme of the scientific work of Ilya Prigogine was a better understanding of the role of time in the physical sciences and in biology. He contributed significantly to the understanding of irreversible processes, particularly in systems far from equilibrium. The results of his work on dissipative structures have stimulated many scientists throughout the world and may have profound consequences for our understanding of biological systems.

Prigogine received numerous national awards and prizes, including the Golden Medal of the Swante Arrhenius, Swedish Academy; Rumford Gold Medal, Royal Society of London; the Descartes Medal, Paris; Commander of the Legion of Honor, France; Imperial Order of the Rising Sun (Gold & Silver Medals), Japan; Medaille d’Or, France; Russian International Scientific Award, First “N. N. Bogolyubov Prize,” Joint Institute for Nuclear Research, Dubna; Medal of the President of the Italian Senate, awarded by Pio Manzu International Research Center, Italy; Norbert Wiener Gold Medal of Ukbridge; Medal of Member of the European Academy of Yuste; Silver Medal of V.I. Vernadskiy, the Academy of Natural Sciences of Russia and Commander of the World Order “Science. Culture. Education.” European Academy of Information, 2002. He received 53 honorary degrees.

  • The Arrow of Time
  • Irreversibility in Nature
  • The Role of Chaos in Physics
  • Large-Scale Structures
  • Nonlinear Dynamical
  • Liouvillian Quantum Mechanics

Ilya Prigogine Institutes and Centers of Study in the World

  • Centro Latinoamericano de Estudios “Ilya Prigogine”
  • Institut Ilya Prigogine pour l’Etude des Systemes Complexs
  • Istituto di Documentazione e Ricerca sull’Opera di Ilya Prigogine
  • Instituts Internationaux de Physique et de Chimie Fondes par E. Solvay

Recent Books

  • Is Future Given?
    World Scientific, Singapore
    2003
  • Modern Thermodynamics: From Heat Engines to Dissipative Structures
    (with D. Kondepudi)
    John Wiley & Sons, Chichester
    1998
  • The End of Certainty, Time, Chaos and the New Laws of Nature
    (with I. Stengers)
    The Free Press, New York
    1997
  • Exploring Complexity
    (with G. Nicolis)
    W. H. Freeman & Co., San Francisco
    1989
  • Order Out of Chaos
    (with I. Stengers)
    Bantam Books, New York
    1983
  • From Being to Becoming: Time and Complexity in the Physical Sciences
    W. H. Freeman & Co., San Francisco
    1980
  • Self-Organization in Non-Equilibrium Systems: From Dissipative Structures to Order Through Fluctuations
    (with G. Nicolis)
    J. Wiley & Sons, New York
    1977
  • Nonequilibrium Statistical Mechanics
    Wiley-Interscience, New York
    1962

Last updated 05/05/2021

Ilya Prigogine–Recent Journal Articles       

2004 “Role of Non-integrability in Radiation Damping”
(with Ilya Prigogine and Eugenvi Karpov
Has the last word been said on classical electrodynamics? Classical electrodynamics: new horizons
eds: Andrew Chubykalo, Vladimir Onoochin, Augusto Espinoza, Roman Smirnov-Rueda (Rinton Press, Inc.)

2004 “Irreversibility, Probabilities and Dressed Unstable States in Quantum Mechanics”
(with T. Petrosky and G. Ordonez)
J. Phys. Soc. Jpn 72, 12

2003 “Radiation damping in classical systems: The role of nonintegrability”
(with G. Ordonez and T. Petrosky)
Phys. Rev. A 68, 022107

2002 “Space time formulation of quantum transitions”
(with T. Petrosky and G. Ordonez)
Physical Review A 64, 062101

2002 “Quantum transitions in interacting fields”
(with E. Karpov, G. Ordonez and T. Petrosky )
Physical Review A 66, 012109

2001 “Gamow algebras”
(with I. Antoniou, M. Gadella, E. Karpov and G. Pronko)
Chaos, Solitons and Fractals 12, 2757

2001 “Explicit construction of a time superoperator for quantum unstable systems”
(with G. Ordonez, T. Petrosky and E. Karpov)
Chaos, Solitons and Fractals 12, 2591

2001 “Quantum transitions and dressed unstable states”
(with G. Ordonez and T. Petrosky)
Phys. Rev. A 63, 052106

2001 “Chemistry Far from Equilibrium: Thermodynamics, Order and Chaos”
(with G. Dewel and Dilip Kondepudi)
The New Chemistry ed. N. Hall (Cambridge University Press, Cambridge)

2000 “Causality, delocalization and positivity of energy”
(with T. Petrosky and G. Ordonez)
Physical Review A 62, 012103

2000 “Quantum Transitions and nonlocality”
(with T. Petrosky and G. Ordonez)
Physical Review A 62, 042106

2000 “Thermodynamic limit, Hilbert space and breaking of time symmetry”
(with T. Petrosky)
Chaos, Solitons and Fractals 11, 373-382

2000 “Friedrichs model with virtual transitions”
(with E. Karpov, T. Petrosky and G. Pronko)
Journal of Mathematical Physics 41, 118

2000 “The Arrow of Time”
The Chaotic Universe ed. V.G. Gurzadyan and R. Ruffini (World Scientific, Singapore)

2000 “Norbert Wiener and the Idea of Contingence”
International Journal of Systems and Cybernetics 29

2000 “Time operator for diffusion”
(with I. Antoniou, V. Sadovnichii and S.A. Shkarin)
Chaos, Solitons and Fractals 11, 465

1999 “Extension of classical dynamics: Emergence of irreversibility and stochasticity”
(with T. Petrosky)
Fundamental and Applications of complex Systems ed. G. Zgrablich (Neuva Editorial Universitaria, San Luis) 427

1999 “Laws of Nature and Time Symmetry Breaking”
(with T. Petrosky)
Generalized Functions, operatory theory and dynamical systems ed. I. Antoniou and G. (Lumer, Chapman & Hall CRC)

1999 “Laws of Nature, Probability and Time Symmetry Breaking”
(with T. Petrosky)
Physica A 263, 528-539

1998 “Semigroup Representation of the Vlasov Evolution”
(with T. Petrosky)
Journal of Plasma Physics 59, 611-618

1998 “Relativistic Gamov Vectors”
J. Math. Phys. 39

Primary Sidebar

Highlights

About Ilya Prigogine

Student Achievements

Books by Center Members

About Allan MacDonald

Footer

  • Email
  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Twitter

UT Home | Emergency Information | Site Policies | Web Accessibility | Web Privacy | Adobe Reader

© The University of Texas at Austin 2025