Flicker group

• Dr. Felix Flicker

  Senior Lecturer

Biography

I am a theoretical physicist and Senior Lecturer in Physics at Bristol University. My work concerns the theory of quantum matter. I tend to work on phenomena which involve interesting shapes and patterns (geometry and topology). 

Until 2023 I was a Lecturer in Physics at Cardiff University. Before that I held the Astor Junior Research Fellowship at New College, Oxford, and a Lindemann Trust Fellowship of the English Speaking Union, which sent me to the University of California, Berkeley. I completed my PhD at the University of Bristol.

Research Interests & Activities

Our work concerns the theory of quantum matter, with focus on phenomena which involve interesting shapes and patterns (geometry and topology). Some of the key areas of research we have been involved with are listed below.

Hamiltonian Cycles on Ammann Beenker Tilings

A Hamiltonian cycle visits every vertex on a graph exactly once before returning to the start. A classic example is a Knight's Tour on a chessboard. Finding these paths is, in general, a very hard problem (NP-complete). Unexpectedly, we found a way to construct them on certain quasicrystals. As a result, many formerly intractable problems can now be solved in this setting. The Hamiltonian cycles also make fantastically complicated mazes.

Aperiodic Monotiles

2023 saw the discovery of an aperiodic monotile: a shape (dubbed 'The Hat') that can tile a plane perfectly, but only without periodicity. To celebrate this inspirational result we organised Hatfest at Oxford University's Mathematical Institute. We have subsequently worked to understand how physics behaves in these fascinating settings.

Magnetic Monopoles in Spin Ice

My experimental collaborators detected signatures of magnetic monopoles in the spin ice material dysprosium titanate, based on our earlier theoretical predictions.

Current researchers and PhD students