Saturday, July 18, 2015

Acknowledgements and dedication

I have always enjoyed reading this section in the work of others, even where I have no intelligent opinion in the scientific merit of said work. The nature of this thesis demands I acknowledge the people who have steered, nudged, inspired, or directly pushed me into the fire. Despite my omission of unrelated joys, there are still many people to thank.

I recollect a gathering with Andrei and Emil. Emil asked semi-rhetorically, ''What problem shall we solve today?" Andrei replied fervently, "Everything." I hope to have imbibed some of his gung-ho, take-no-prisoner ambition. His standard for clarity and rigor in thinking and writing shall be my standard.  He taught me that coincidences were symmetries waiting to be unmasked -- this thesis describes our unmasking.

Chen Fang listened patiently to many of my errant speculations, until some of them eventually struck home. To him I owe the debt of levelling me up from slaying rats in the basement, and for accelerating my productivity. His experience in band theory steered many conversations into discoveries, and we drank together the wine of shared ideas, and sometimes just plain wine and too much of it. Our musings in wintery Aspen, while soaking in mountain-top, open-air jacuzzis, birthed Chap. 3.

My unlikely partnership with Wang Zhijun proved instrumental to this thesis. He arrived in Princeton with big dreams but little English -- our mode of communication was at first completely mathematical. Nevertheless, his insights in material chemistry complemented my abstract, group-theoretical perspective. He found the (classified) material class whose true beauty was veiled to us in the months that we prodded and probed. After a chance dinner at Szechuan House, he suggested that our hourglass fermion might be robust but didn't know why; in completing his thought I (or we!) discovered the hourglass-zigzag topology, which underlies Chap. 4.

I arrived in Princeton at Daniel Arovas' insistence, and in the ensuing five years he would frequently descend at Princeton as a whirlwind, whipping out his brand of wit and physical intuition. When I professed to being lost  in in existentialist crisis, he threatened to put a fork through my hand. He introduced me to elementary band representations, which sparked an insight detailed in the Summary and Outlook. His support throughout my career has been tremendous.

Nicolas Regnault is a giant. When he flexes, beautiful numerics stream out. Our conversations flow from parafermions to practical know-how, e.g., how to find a job without despairing, and how to sensitively acknowledge collaborators in talks -- by joking at the expense of the French. I partook so much of his intelligence, compassion and humor.

I have had the immense pleasure of being the resident shrink for band-topological advice. Belopolski often bursts through my office door to bounce off his latest ideas. He writes frenetically on the board, then peers back at me to register my reactions. Since my reactions are often not forthcoming, an awkward silence ensues whereupon my rising impatience chokes me to further silence. Many episodes occur in this fashion. I will miss many things about Belopolski, but I will not miss that searching look. Some semblance of ideas seep through, and it is still hopeful that one of them will bear fruit. Among proven collaborations with more-serious experimentalists, Nasser sold me a mystery whose definitive solution eluded me, though I have my speculation. Our joint exploration of the Cerium monopnictides uncovered a beautiful example of band-theoretical holography. Bismuth christened me to nature's fold, and instilled in me a deep-seated belief in band theory. Here marked my first rewarding partnership with an experimentalist, Ilya Drozdov, with whom many nights were spent understanding the scattering of Bloch waves.

Dedication:

My parents, Rugai and Connie, carried my burdens and actualized my evanescent dream.

My sisters, Charmelia, Nina, Sasha, Marcia, and Laetitia, withstood my long absences.
 
I wish it were not so. 
 
To Katie, with whom I shared the first tentative steps. 

I bear you, now, sure-footed.

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