Many phenomena in nature owe their emergence from the interactions of large number of particles. In condensed matter, many-body interaction and topological effects are often dominant in the quantum properties of reduced-dimensional systems. These effects lead to manifestation of counter-intuitive concepts and phenomena that may not be so prominent or have not been seen in the bulk. In this talk, I present some fascinating quantum phenomena discovered in recent studies of atomically thin one- and two-dimensional materials. A number of interesting and unexpected behaviors have been found – e.g., strongly bound excitons (electron-hole pairs) with highly unusual energy level structures and optical selection rules; tunable magnetism and plasmonic properties; novel topological phases; prominent correlated 3- and 4-particle excitations; remarkable field-driven time-dependent effects, etc. – adding to the promise of these materials for exploration of new science and valuable applications.

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