A. Brooks Harris

Professor of Physics Emeritus
harris@physics.upenn.edu
DRL 2N22
(215) 898-8557
(215) 898-2010

Professor at University of Pennsylvania since 1965

Honors include:

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).