The mathematician received the Carl Friedrich von Siemens Research Award of the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation in 2021. The award goes to researchers who cooperate with host institutes in Munich and the surrounding area, and comes with prize money of 65,000 euros.
Specialist in statistical mechanics
The Humboldt Research Award recognizes internationally leading scientists from all disciplines, from abroad, for their overall work to date. The science award enables a stay of up to 12 months in Germany.
Nachtergeale is a professor of mathematics at the University of California, Davis, USA, and conducts research in mathematical physics. He works on a variety of problems in equilibrium and nonequilibrium statistical mechanics. His interests include.
- ground states and dynamics of quantum spin systems,
- stability and low-lying excitations of quantum interfaces,
- hydrodynamic limits of quantum many-body systems, and
- properties of the dynamics of quantum lattice systems.
Applications are found in condensed matter physics, nanotechnology, quantum information theory, and quantum computing.
Mathematical research on the quantum Hall effect
Currently, Bruno Nachtergaele is working together with researchers at the TUM on mathematical models of the fractional quantum Hall effect. This effect describes the occurrence of collective quantum states of electrons interacting in strong magnetic fields. In such states, effective charge carriers arise, which are fractions of electron charges. Excitations from ground states of such systems are associated with energies form the focus on the TUM collaboration.
Bruno Nachtergeale is from Belgium, where he studied at the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven and received his PhD in theoretical physics in 1987. He is a Fellow of the American Mathematical Society and the American Association for the Advancement of Science. In 2002, he was Invited Speaker at the International Congress of Mathematicians in Beijing.