Ironing out my ignorance

Before going to a conference and experiencing information overload it is worth thinking through what one is hoping to learn.

One thing I am looking forward to at the GRC on superconductivity is getting up to speed on the new iron pnictide superconductors.

Some of the questions I have are:

• Is there a universal phase diagram?
• What is the superconducting pairing symmetry?
• What are the experimental signatures of strong electronic correlations?
• Is there a pseudogap?
• Is the quality/purity of the samples high enough we can be confident that experimentalists are measuring what they claim on what they claim?
• What is the minimal quantum many-body Hamiltonian that can describe these materials? How many bands are necessary?
• Is there an variational wave function that captures the essential physics of the competition between the different ground states?
• What are the outstanding unresolved questions?

A nice introduction to some of these issues is this brief overview by Mike Norman.