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Synopsis

The basic ingredients for understanding the problem of electrons in solids have been known for over 100 years (electrons, nuclei, Coulomb repulsion and the Schrödinger equation).  Nevertheless, solving this problem remains one of the major open challenges in physics, in part because the problem is far too complex to solve exactly on even the largest computers.  This opens the door to a class of systems called quantum materials, where surprising, new and unpredictable behaviour emerges from complexity.  We will review some of the exciting discoveries that have been made (and continue to be made) in quantum materials, and discuss some of the elegant techniques physicists use to gain insight into these systems.