The Ab Initio Quantum Materials Group

When we bring together a large number of particles, a collective behavior emerges that is very different from the behavior of the individual particles. This emergence, beautifully summarized by Anderson's phrase 'More is different', gives rise to exotic fascinating new physics. At the Ab Initio Quantum Materials Group (AIQM), we work towards finding answers to questions related to emergent phenomena in condensed matter that can be exploited for practical applications in quantum technologies. We strive for high accuracy and strong predictive power and our computational approaches are a bridge between theory and experiment. We develop and use first-principles methods beyond density functional theory (DFT) that are based on many-body perturbation theory. We do not only want to reproduce existing experiments, but also to predict the results of experiments that have not been performed yet. Our methods demonstrate exceptional accuracy in predicting experimental results like those from angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy (ARPES), momentum-resolved electron energy loss spectroscopy (k-EELS), and inelastic neutron scattering (INS). The AIQM group is part of the Institute for Theoretical Physics (ITFA), a division of the Institute of Physics (IoP) of the University of Amsterdam (UvA).