Dr. Rene Hammer's PhD Thesis entitled "Dynamics of Dirac Fermions" (Physics Department, Univ. of Graz, Oct. 2013, supervisor: Walter Pötz, funding: FWF I-395) deals with an innovative numerical scheme which allows the simulation of Dirac fermions on a lattice without the occurrence of fermion doubling. Although the latter had been a long-standing unsolved problem in high-energy physics the motivation for this thesis was the experimental realization of metallic Dirac-fermion surface states in topological insulators. This scheme, which was formulated explicitly in 1+1, 2+1, and 3+1 space-time dimensions was used in numerical studies of coherent single-particle dynamics in electromagnetically textured topological insulator surfaces. Simulations performed within this thesis included, among other things, Klein tunneling, superlensing, the dynamics in ferromagnetic vortices, and the propagation of domain-wall fermions. Structures which serve as one-way Dirac fermion wave guides and interferometers were proposed and evaluated.
Rene Hammer was born in Graz and received a diploma degree in physics from the Technical University of Graz before joining the Solid State Theory group of Walter Pötz at the Karl Franzens University in Graz. He currently holds a research position at the Materials Center Leoben (MCL).
Links:
