"Jamming and the Emergence of Rigidity"
Presented by Sidney Nagel, University of Chicago
When a system jams it undergoes a transition from a
flowing to a rigid state. Despite this important change in the
dynamics, the internal structure of the system remains disordered in the
solid as well as the fluid phase. In this way jamming is very
different from crystallization, the other common way in which a fluid
solidifies. Jamming is a paradigm for thinking about how many different
types of fluids - from molecular liquids to macroscopic granular matter
- develop rigidity. As the geometrical constraints between constituent
particles become important, it is less easy for a fluid to flow. At
zero temperature, the jamming transition is unusual - with aspects of
both continuous and discontinuous behavior. By paying close attention
to the normal modes of vibration, we have found that the properties of
the marginally-jammed solid are also highly unusual and provide a new
way of thinking about disordered systems generally.
Hosted by Prof. David Reichman
Thursday, December 9, 2010
Meet the Speaker at 1:30pm in The Miller Seminar Room, 328 Havemeyer
Tea & cookies at 4:00pm in The Miller Seminar Room, 328 Havemeyer
Seminar at 4:30 in The Brian Bent Memorial Lecture Hall, Room 209 Havemeyer
