In any solid there are two competing effects which determine how important the interactions are between the electrons. One is the band width which is large when the electrons are highly mobile and the other is the strength of the Coulomb interaction between the electrons. If the band width is large then the material behaves as a normal metal but magnetism occurs when the when the Coulomb interaction dominate and then many other interesting effects may occur such as the metal insulator transition. The understanding of interacting electrons is known as many body theory and is a main preoccupation of theoretical physicists. Currently there is one graduate student working in this area, Chatchai Srinitiwarawong, he has been looking at the properties of Fe3O4.
Work is also underway with colleagues in Poland and elsewhere.
Her profile is high in this area. The Isaac Newton Institute for Mathematical Sciences in Cambridge is holding a six month programme on Strongly Correlated Electrons in the first six months of next year and she will attend this meeting half time for the whole six months. Gehring's pages Mail Prof.