A. Brooks Harris

Emeritus

Professor of Physics Emeritus

(215) 898-8557

DRL 2N22

Professor at University of Pennsylvania (1965 - Present)

Honors

  • Alfred P. Sloan Fellow 1967-1969 
  • John Simon Guggenheim Fellow 1972-1973 
  • Lars Onsager Prize of the American Physical Society 2007 

 

Education

Ph.D., Harvard (1962)

Research Interests

Theoretical Condensed Matter Physics

My recent research has covered several areas in condensed matter theory, including:

  1. removal of degeneracy via quantum fluctuations
  2. magnetic properties of cuprates
  3. microscopic models to explain the pitch of cholesteric liquid crystals
  4. dynamics of hydrogen molecules in nanocages
  5. orbitally degenerate magnets, and
  6. magnetic ferroelectrics.

Many of these projects have been the results of fruitful collaboration with colleagues here and at other institutions. Collaborators in the above projects include Professor T. C. Lubensky (Penn), Professor A. Aharony (Tel Aviv), Professor R. J. Birgeneau (MIT), Dr. J. Yeomans (Oxford), Professor A. J. Berlinsky (McMaster), Professor R. D. Kamien (Penn), Dr. T. Yildirim (NIST), Professor C. Broholm (Johns Hopkins), and Dr. A. Ramirez (Bell Labs).

 

Selected Publications
  • Effect of Random Defects on the Critical Behaviour of Ising Models,” A. Brooks Harris, J. Phys. C 7, 1671-1692 (1974).
  • “Single Particle Excitations in Narrow Energy Bands,” A. Brooks Harris and Robert V. Lange, Phys. Rev. 157, 295-314 (1967).
  • “Renormalization Group Approach to the Critical Behavior of Random-Spin Models,” A. Brooks Harris and T. C. Lubensky, Phys. Rev. Lett. 33, 1540-1543 (1974).
  • “Comment on “Orientational Ordering Transition in Solid C$_{60}$,” Ravi Sachidanandam and A. B. Harris, Phys. Rev. Lett. 67, 1467--1467 (1991).
  • “Possible Neel Orderings of the Kagome Antiferromagnet,” A. B. Harris, C. Kallin, and A. J. Berlinsky, Phys. Rev. B 45,
    2899--2919 (1992).
  • “Mean Field Theory of the Orientational Properties of ($J=1$) Molecules on the Surface of Grafoil,” A. B. Harris and A. J. Berlinsky, Can. J. Phys. 7, 1852-1868 (1979).
  • “Molecular Chirality and Chiral Parameters,” A. B. Harris, R. D. Kamien, and T. C. Lubensky, Rev. Mod. Phys. 71,
    1745-1757 (1999).
  • “Magnetically Driven Ferroelectric Order in Ni$_3$V$_2$O$_8$,” G. Lawes, A. B. Harris, T. Kimura, N. Rogado, R. J. Cava, A. Aharony, O. Entin-Wohlman, T. Yildirim, M. Kenzelmann, C. Broholm, and
    A. P. Ramirez, Phys. Rev. Lett. 95, 087205 (2005).
  • “Anisotropic Spin Hamiltonians due to Spin-Orbit and Coulomb Exchange Interactions,” T. Yildirim, A. B. Harris, Amnon Aharony, and O. Entin-Wohlman, Phys. Rev. B 52, 10239--10267 (1995).
  • “Observation of the Pair Interaction Between Ortho Molecules in Solid H$_2$,” A. Brooks Harris, Larry I. Amstutz, Horst Meyer, and Samuel M. Myers, Phys. Rev. 175, 603-609 (1968).