physics

Matthew P. A. Fisher

Matthew P. A. Fisher is a physics topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Matthew P. A. Fisher rather than just read about it. In short: Matthew P. A.

Key takeaways

Matthew P. A. Fisher belongs to physics; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Matthew P. A. Fisher to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Matthew P. A. Fisher from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

Matthew P. A. Fisher is an American theoretical physicist and professor of physics at the University of California, Santa Barbara, and is known for several major contributions to condensed matter physics. He completed his bachelor's degree in engineering physics from Cornell University in 1981 and earned a Ph.D. in theoretical physics from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in 1986 with Anthony Leggett as his advisor, with part of his work done under the supervision of Eduardo Fradkin. He went on to become first a visiting scientist and then a research staff member at IBM T. J. Watson Research Center (1986–1993). He joined the Kavli Institute for Theoretical Physics and the physics department of the University of California in 1993. In 2007 he joined Microsoft's Station Q as a research physicist, on leave from the UCSB physics department. During the academic year 2009–2010 he was on the faculty at Caltech, returning to the physics department at UCSB in summer 2010. Fisher was awarded the Alan T. Waterman Award in 1995, and in 2015 he was a recipient of the Oliver E. Buckley Condensed Matter Prize for his work on the superconductor-insulator transition. He was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2003 and to the National Academy of Sciences in 2012. He is a Fellow of the American Physical Society. Fisher is the son of English physicist Michael E. Fisher, and brother of American physicist Daniel S. Fisher.

Research Fisher is one of the leading figures in condensed matter physics, and has made important contributions to many areas in condensed matter physics. Some of his most important works have been in the theories of quantum phase transitions, in particular superconductor-insulator transitions (with Daniel Fisher, Steven Girvin and others) and deconfined quantum criticality (with Subir Sachdev, T. Senthil, Ashvin Vishwanath and Leon Balents). He has also made important contributions to superconductivity, in particular, introducing vortex-glass superconductivity as a possible new phase of matter and using bosonic particle-vortex dualities to describe the properties of superconductors (with Dung-Hai Lee). He has also made significant advances in the transport and other aspects of the physics of Luttinger liquids (with Charles Kane) and other one-dimensional problems in condensed matter such as the edges of quantum Hall states. He has also done important works in the area of quantum spin liquids, often using the aforementioned dualities to provide theoretical descriptions of various spin liquid phenomena (with Leon Balents, Michael Hermele, Jason Alicea, Shinsei Ryu and others). He has also made important contributions to the physics of carbon nanotubes (with Leon Balents and Charles Kane) and emergent Majorana fermions and related phenomena in quasi-one-dimensional problems (with Jason Alicea and others). In recent years, Fisher has developed new interests in neuroscience, where in particular he has proposed the possibility (and mechanisms) of quantum information processing (specifically, quantum mind) in the human brain.

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References

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Matthew P. A. Fisher

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Matthew P. A. Fisher claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In physics, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Matthew P. A. Fisher before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Matthew P. A. Fisher ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Matthew P. A. Fisher

In research: Matthew P. A. Fisher appears in physics research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Matthew P. A. Fisher in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Matthew P. A. Fisher is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 1960 births, 21st-century American physicists, Cornell University alumni, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Matthew P. A. Fisher outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Matthew P. A. Fisher in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Matthew P. A. Fisher means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Matthew P. A. Fisher out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Matthew P. A. Fisher in simple terms?

Matthew P. A.

Why does Matthew P. A. Fisher matter?

Because it connects several physics ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Matthew P. A. Fisher?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Matthew P. A. Fisher.