Preface

Abstract

PrefaceThe 2010 International Conference on Strongly Correlated Electron Systems was held in Santa Fe, New Mexico, a reunion of sorts of the 1989 International Conference on the Physics of Highly Correlated Electron Systems that also convened in Santa Fe. SCES 2010 – co-chaired by John Sarrao and Joe Thompson – followed the tradition of earlier conferences in this century, hosted by Buzios (’08), Houston (’07), Vienna (’05), Karlsruhe (’04), Krakow (’02) and Ann Arbor (’01). Every three years since 1997, SCES has joined the International Conference on Magnetism (ICM), held in Recife (’00), Rome (’03), Kyoto (’06) and Karlsruhe (’09). Like its predecessors, SCES 2010 topics included strongly correlated f- and d-electron systems, heavy-fermion behaviors, quantum-phase transitions, non-Fermi liquid phenomena, unconventional superconductivity, and emergent states that arise from electronic correlations. Recent developments from studies of quantum magnetism and cold atoms complemented the traditional subjects and were included in SCES 2010.2010 celebrated the 400th anniversary of Santa Fe as well as the birth of astronomy. So what is the connection to SCES? The Dutch invention of the first practical telescope and its use by Galileo in 1610 and subsequent years overturned the dogma that the sun revolved about the earth. This revolutionary, and at the time heretical, conclusion required innovative combinations of new instrumentation, observation and mathematics. These same combinations are just as important 400 years later and are the foundation of scientific discoveries that were discussed during SCES 2010. As we learned, past dogmas about strongly correlated materials and phenomena must be re-examined with an open and inquisitive mind. A glimpse at the excitement this conference had to offer can be seen in the SCES 2010 proceedings, which are published simultaneously by the Institute of Physics Publishing in issues of the Journal of Physics: Conference Series (contributed papers) and Journal of Physics: Condensed Matter (invited papers).This conference would not have been possible without the hard work of the SCES 2010 Program Committee, International and National Advisory Committees, Local Committee and conference organizers, the New Mexico Consortium. We thank them as well as those organizations that generously provided financial support: ICAM-I2CAM, Quantum Design, Lakeshore, the National High Magnetic Field Laboratory and the Department of Energy National Laboratories at Argonne, Berkeley, Brookhaven, Los Alamos and Oak Ridge. Of course, we especially thank the participants for bringing new ideas and new results, without which SCES 2010 would not have been possible.