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There is now a CONTENT FREEZE for Mercury while we switch to a new platform. It began on Friday, March 10 at 6pm and will end on Wednesday, March 15 at noon. No new content can be created during this time, but all material in the system as of the beginning of the freeze will be migrated to the new platform, including users and groups. Functionally the new site is identical to the old one. webteam@gatech.edu
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Phonons determine the thermal properties of materials as well as mediating electronic transport. Our research has focused on the physics of phonons, with an emphasis on developing ab initio theoretical descriptions of thermal properties and phonon thermal transport. This parameter-free theory has yielded excellent agreement with the measured thermal conductivities of a wide range of materials, validating its predictive capability and contributing insight into the nature of heat flow. Examples of such insight include: a new paradigm for achieving ultrahigh thermal conductivity in bulk crystals, and the prediction that phonon hydrodynamic behavior such as Poiseuille flow and second sound can occur in graphene at unusually high temperatures. I will also discuss some new directions we’ve initiated involving phonons interacting with electrons, plasmons and magnons.
