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Thursdays at noon, June 4th through August 6th
West Hall 335
Free lunch and coffee provided before every session!
This Week's Speaker: Michelle Thran
Why 3D Is So Frustrating: Understanding Structural Complexity Through Curved-Space Packings
Michelle Thran
Department of Physics
Whether synthetic or natural, nanoparticles in our three-dimensional universe self-assemble into structures with a remarkable degree of complexity. However, it is difficult to predict assemblies for all but the simplest shapes and pair potentials. Part of this challenge lies in the fact that most particle environments which are favored locally are incommensurate with the global geometry, a situation known as "geometric frustration". The purpose of this work is to study the extent to which this emergent complexity can be understood as resolved geometric frustration. Geometric incommensurability can be resolved by curving space; Curved spaces offer new compatible particle arrangements and can therefore “relax” geometric frustration in assemblies. In many cases, features of assembled structures can be interpreted as topologically necessary defects of curved-space assemblies.
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