A recent manuscript co-authored by Dr. Emil Prodan, assistant professor in YU’s physics department, has been accepted for publication in the prestigious journal Physical Review Letters. The paper, titled “Entanglement Spectrum of a Disordered Topological Chern Insulator,” deals with the properties of highly disordered topological insulators, and investigates how much disorder these materials can withstand before losing their spectacular properties. Topological insulators represent a newly discovered class of materials which conduct electricity along the edges of the same sample. The metallic character of the edges is not affected by the presence of impurities and defects, whereas in a regular metal such imperfections could easily suppress the ability of the material to conduct electricity. For this reason, topological insulators could completely revolutionize the design and functionality of future electronic components and, since their discovery about four years ago, have become the subject of an intense scrutiny on both theoretical and experimental fronts of materials research. Physical Review Letters has become the premier journal for scientists with a broad range of interest. The extract can be read here.