B.Sc., Trent (75); A.M., Ph.D., Harvard (76,79) Junior Fellow, Harv. Soc. of Fellows (79-81) Asst. Prof., Princeton (81-87) Researcher, CEN-Saclay, France (84-85) Steacie Prize (88) A.P. Sloan Found. Fellow (83-87) CIAR Fellow (87-), Hertzberg Medal (90), Rutherford Medal (91) Killam Prize (92), Biely Prize (92), F.R.S.C.
I mention three examples:
A major challenge at present in condensed matter theory is to understand the new high-Tc superconductors.
Quasi-one dimensional antiferromagnets studied, for example, by neutron-scattering at Chalk River, Ontario. These provide experimental applications of quantum field theory in one space and one time dimension.
The technique of conformal field theory, which is the mathematical underpinning of string theory, has been recently developed to discover new aspects of possible interactions between magnetic impurities and conduction electrons in metals.
"Critical Theory of Overscreened Kondo Fixed Points", Nucl. Phys. B360, 641-696 (1991), I. Affleck and A.W.W. Ludwig.
"Bose Condensation in Quasi-one-dimensional Antiferromagnets in Strong Fields", Phys. Rev. B43, 3215-3222 (1991), I. Affleck.
"Universal Non-Integer Groundstate Degeneracy in Critical Quantum Systems", Phys. Rev. Lett., 67, 161-164 (1991), I. Affleck and A.W.W. Ludwig.
"Exact Critical Theory of the Two Impurity Kondo Model", Phys.Rev.Lett., 68, 1046-1050 (1992), I. Affleck and A.W.W. Ludwig.
"Longitudinal Modes in Haldane Gap Antiferromagnets", Phys. Rev. B46, 8934-8953 (1992), I. Affleck and G.F. Wellman.