Leon Balents

About

Leon Balents is a Professor and KITP Permanent Member at the Department of Physics, UC Santa Barbara. His research interests focus on developing theory to uncover and explain exotic quantum phenomena in the real world. He is part of the Condensed Matter Theory group, where his work contributes to advancing the understanding of complex quantum systems and their underlying principles.

Research topics

• Artificial Intelligence
• Physics
• Computer Science
• Quantum mechanics
• Condensed matter physics

Selected publications

• <mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" display="inline"><mml:mrow><mml:mi>Cs</mml:mi><mml:msub><mml:mrow><mml:mi mathvariant="normal">V</mml:mi></mml:mrow><mml:mrow><mml:mn>3</mml:mn></mml:mrow></mml:msub><mml:mrow><mml:msub><mml:mrow><mml:mi>Sb</mml:mi></mml:mrow><mml:mrow><mml:mn>5</mml:mn></mml:mrow></mml:msub></mml:mrow></mml:mrow></mml:math>: A <mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" display="inline"><mml:msub><mml:mi mathvariant="double-struck">Z</mml:mi><mml:mn>2</mml:mn></mml:msub></mml:math> Topological Kagome Metal with a Superconducting Ground State

  Physical Review Letters · 2020 · 938 citations

  Recently discovered alongside its sister compounds KV_{3}Sb_{5} and RbV_{3}Sb_{5}, CsV_{3}Sb_{5} crystallizes with an ideal kagome network of vanadium and antimonene layers separated by alkali metal ions. This work presents the electronic properties of CsV_{3}Sb_{5}, demonstrating bulk superconductivity in single crystals with a T_{c}=2.5 K. The normal state electronic structure is studied via angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy and density-functional theory, which categorize CsV_{3}Sb_{5}…

  DOI

• Superconductivity and strong correlations in moiré flat bands

  Nature Physics · 2020 · 857 citations

  1st authorCorresponding
  DOI

• Magnetostriction, piezomagnetism and domain nucleation in a Kagome antiferromagnet

  Nature Communications · 2024-08-13 · 23 citations

  articleOpen access

  Whenever the elastic energy of a solid depends on magnetic field, there is a magnetostrictive response. Field-linear magnetostriction implies piezomagnetism and vice versa. Here, we show that Mn3Sn, a non-collinear antiferromanget with Weyl nodes, hosts a large and almost perfectly linear magnetostriction even at room temperature. The longitudinal and transverse magnetostriction, with opposite signs and similar amplitude are restricted to the kagome planes and the out-of-plane response is neglig…

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• An exact method for bosonizing the Fermi surface in arbitrary dimensions

  SciPost Physics · 2024-03-08 · 9 citations

  articleOpen accessSenior author

  Inspired by the recent work by Delacretaz et. al. [Phys. Rev. Res. 4, 033131 (2022)], we rigorously derive an exact and simple method to bosonize a non-interacting fermionic system with a Fermi surface starting from a microscopic Hamiltonian. In the long-wavelength limit, we show that the derived bosonized action is exactly equivalent to the action obtained by Delacretaz et. al. In addition, we propose diagrammatic rules to evaluate correlation functions using our bosonized theory and demonstrat…

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Distinct Optical Excitation Mechanisms of a Coherent Magnon in a van der Waals Antiferromagnet

  Physical Review Letters · 2025-02-10 · 8 citations

  article

  The control of antiferromagnets with ultrashort optical pulses has emerged as a prominent field of research. Tailored laser excitation can launch coherent spin waves at terahertz frequencies, yet a comprehensive description of their generation mechanisms is still lacking despite extensive efforts. Using terahertz emission spectroscopy, we investigate the generation of a coherent magnon mode in the van der Waals antiferromagnet NiPS_{3} under a range of photoexcitation conditions. By tuning the p…

  PublisherDOI

Recent grants

• Quantum Phenomena in Solids

  NSF · $354k · 2015–2019

• Quantum phenomena in solids

  NSF · $345k · 2012–2016

• Quantum Phenomena in Solids

  NSF · $360k · 2018–2021

Frequent coauthors

• L. Savary

  University of California, Santa Barbara

  190 shared

• Jianpeng Liu

  ShanghaiTech University

  138 shared

• J. G. Checkelsky

  130 shared

• J. W. Lynn

  127 shared

• T. Suzuki

  Shibaura Institute of Technology

  66 shared

• T. Suzuki

  62 shared

• Matthew P. A. Fisher

  53 shared

• Gang Chen

  Collaborative Innovation Center of Quantum Matter

  41 shared

Labs

• Leon Balents's LabPI

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Education

• B.S., Physics and Mathematics

  Massachusetts Institute of Technology

• Ph.D., Physics

  Harvard University

  1994

Awards & honors

• Fellow of the American Physical Society
• Member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences
• Member of the National Academy of Sciences

Similar researchers at University of California, Santa Barbara

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• Caitlin Caseyh-62