Nanoscale devices offer unique opportunities for probing the rich physics emerging from the interplay of electronic correlations, spatial confinement and many-body phenomena. One of the paradigms of strong correlations effects in nanosystems is the Kondo effect, the many-body screening of a local spin by a continuum of electrons, observed in a variety of nanodevices, ranging from semiconductor quantum dots and carbon nanotubes to molecular bridge junctions and magnetic adatoms on metallic surfaces.

In this colloquium, I will review the main aspects of such "nanoscale Kondo physics" and discuss the related many-body effects that can be probed using nanostructures. Examples are quantum phase transitions in semiconductor quantum dots (arising from the interplay of electronic orbital and spin degrees of freedom) and non-Fermi liquid behavior in molecular junctions (due to collective bosonic effects, such as phonon-assisted tunneling). I will also summarize our theoretical efforts to pinpoint the manifestation of these effects in measurable transport quantities (such as the linear conductance) and describe our recent studies of nonequilibrium regimes in these systems.

 



Time: 4:00-5:00 p.m.
Place: Witmer Hall Rm. 211