The special issue ‘Correlated Electrons 2016’ is dedicated to materials where the electronic properties are affected in a fundamental manner by the Coulomb interaction present both between electrons but also between electrons and the ionic lattice.
It contains a selection of invited presentations delivered at the international conference on ‘Strongly Correlated Electron Systems’ (SCES 2016) which was held in Hangzhou, China from 8–13 May 2016. The meeting in Hangzhou was the 18th in a series and was the first SCES in China. It was held under the auspices of the Department of Physics and the Center for Correlated Matter of Zhejiang University. Previous meetings were held in Sendai (1992), San Diego (1993), Amsterdam (1994), Goa (1995), Zuerich (1996), Paris (1998), Nagano (1999), Ann Arbor (2001), Krakow (2002), Karlsruhe (2004), Vienna (2005), Houston (2007), Buzios (2008), Santa Fe (2010), Cambridge (2011), Tokyo (2013), and Grenoble (2014). Every three years, the SCES conference is part of the ‘International Conference on Magnetism (ICM)’.
Over the years, these meetings have seen an overall increase both in scope and in the number of participants. This is a reflection not only of a growing interest in quantum materials and in the phenomenon of emergence that may result in novel quantum states of matter. It also indicates a convergence of research interests between the SCES community and other areas of physics research. This is particularly transparent when considering the general interest in more contemporary topics like artificial structures, topological aspects, or properties far from thermal equilibrium. Likely, this trend will likely continue as the interest in strong correlations expands beyond its more traditional setting.
The articles gathered in this special issue of the Philosophical Magazine should give a proper synopsis of current research interests in strongly correlated electron systems. The two articles at the beginning of this special issue deserve special mention. They are based on the conference summaries delivered by Joe D. Thompson and Piers Coleman. Both articles give a necessarily personal view of recent developments in the area of correlated matter research and of the most notable developments. While the summary by Joe Thompson focuses more on the experimental side, the one by Piers Coleman is primarily on the theoretical counterpart.
The regular proceedings of the SCES 2016 conference were published by IOP Journal of Physics, Conference Series as volume 807 (2017).
The SCES 2016 conference included a presentation by Riccardo Comin, recipient of the 2016 Bryan R. Coles Prize for ‘pioneering discoveries of charge order in cuprates, its universality, symmetry and interplay with unconventional superconductivity’ and by Hosho Katsura, the recipient of the 2016 Nevill F. Mott Prize for ‘seminal theories of the mechanisms of spin-driven ferroelectricity and the thermal Hall effect in quantum magnets’.
The SCES Early Career Prizes are given to scientists who made significant contributions to the physics of strongly correlated electron systems at an early stage of their career. Both prizes were sponsored by Taylor & Francis.
I would like to use this opportunity to thank all colleagues who helped making SCES 2016 a success by serving in various functions and committees as well as all participants of the meeting. A very special gratitude goes out to all authors who agreed to contribute to this special issue. I am very thankful for the support and help which I received from the staff of Philosophical Magazine, in particular from Lydia Peddle and Peter Riseborough during the preparation of the present issue.
Finally, I would like express my gratitude for Philosophical Magazine and Prof. Peter Riseborough for making this special issue possible.