Interacting fermions :

Most materials are either metals or insulators. When they are metals, their electronic properties are usually described by Landau's Fermi liquid theory. That is, they behave more or less like a free Fermi gas, with a few modifications due to electron-electron interactions. However, there exist a few metallic materials whose phenomenology does not fit within Fermi liquid theory. These are quasi-2D metals on the verge of becoming insulators, and they happen to become superconducting at low temperature, by a mechanism different than BCS superconductivity. The physics of these materials calls for a new strongly coupled universality class of interacting electrons, yet to be understood. This work looks at the problem from the novel point of view of gauge/gravity, or holographic, duality. Thesis Supervisor: John McGreevy Title: Associate Professor