How Math Lit Up America: The Landscape Function and the LED Energy Revolution

US residential electricity consumption has slightly decreased in recent years, primarily due to improvements in lighting efficiency, specifically the widespread adoption of LED light bulbs. Behind this energy revolution is an unexpected driver: a breakthrough in pure mathematics—the landscape function. Initially a purely mathematical discovery, this function is now central to efficient LED design. Through numerical simulations, the landscape function has helped researchers overcome the "green gap" (the lack of efficient green LEDs), accelerating LED R&D and saving US consumers billions of dollars in energy costs.