Simulation of Dirac physics and fermionic topology in electromagnetics - Jianhua Jiang

The celebrated Dirac equation is not only the foundation of quantum field theory, but also the parent model of many later advances in physics. One of the key notion derived from Dirac equation is the band topology for fermions in various condensed matters. Recently this notion is extended to bosonic systems, such as in photonics. I will briefly introduce the background, fundamental challenges and recent advances in the search of photonic topological materials. Band degeneracy and topology enriched by space symmetry in all dielectric photonic crystals is emphasized. Connections with quantum optics and material sciences will also be remarked.