Physics Department Faculty:
Eric J. Heller
Professor of Chemistry and of PhysicsPhD 1973, Harvard University
Eric Heller's research group focuses on few body quantum mechanics, scattering theory and quantum chaos. Recurrent but not universal themes are semiclassical approximations, classical nonlinear dynamics and time-dependent quantum mechanics. Recent progress in semiclassical methods has allowed a wide range of new quantum problems to be understood in terms of classical mechanics, greatly aiding physical insight. At the other end of the spectrum, the extreme quantum limit (e.g. ultracold collisions) have come to the forefront and are also group interests.
Current investigations include cold atom waveguides, scattering theory of quantum dots and electron transport in semiconductor heterostructures, surface state electron "quantum corral" scattering from defects and adsorbed atoms on metal surfaces, localization theory of eigenstates, semiclassical theory of tunneling and diffraction, and quantum correspondence to classical chaos (scars, spectra, wavefunctions, dynamics).
- M. A. Topinka, B. J. LeRoy, R. M. Westervelt, S. E. J. Shaw, R. Fleischmann, E. J. Heller, K. D. Maranowski, A. C. Gossard, "Coherent Branched Flow In a Two-Dimensional Electron Gas" , Nature , V. 410, 283 (2001).
- W. E. Bies and E. J. Heller, "Nodal structure of chaotic eigenfunctions", J. Phys. A , 35 5673 (2002).
- G. Fiete and E. J. Heller, "Theory of Quantum Corrals and Quantum Mirages", Reviews of Modern Physics , Colloquium article, V. 75, 933 (2003).
- G. Fiete and E. J. Heller, "Semiclassical Theory of Coherence and Decoherence", Phys. Rev. A 68, 022112 (2003).
- M. A. Topinka, R. M. Westervelt, and E. J. Heller, "Imaging Coherent Electron Flow"', Physics Today , December 2004.