Condensed and Living Matter Seminars
Condensed and Living Matter Seminar: "Magic-angle twisted bilayer graphene at charge neutrality: interactions and disorder"
Alex Thomson (California Institute of Technology)
Stacking two graphene layers twisted by the ‘magic angle’ 1.1º generates flat energy bands, which in turn catalyzes various strongly correlated phenomena depending on filling and sample…
Condensed and Living Matter Seminar: "Collective functionality in intelligent active matter: Bridging multi-scale biology with the physics of solids, fluids and information"
Arnold Mathijssen (Stanford University)
Biological systems flourish through collective functionality, by self-assembling into cells, tissues, flocks and parliaments. Understanding this multi-scale organization also lies at the heart of modern engineering…
Condensed and Living Matter Seminar: "Guiding Principles for Engineering Quantum Matter far from Equilibrium"
Martin Claassen (Flatiron Institute)
One of the most fascinating aspects of non-equilibrium physics is that a macroscopic quantum system pushed out of equilibrium can exhibit markedly different dynamics when probed on different time scales…
Condensed and Living Matter Seminar: "Universality at infinite temperature"
Romain Vasseur (University of Massachusetts)
In this talk, I will argue that the concepts of quantum criticality and universality can emerge at very high energy, corresponding to infinite effective temperatures. I will focus on isolated many-body…
Condensed and Living Matter Seminar: "A tale of two motilities: organismal adaptation to complex, changing environments"
Jasmine Nirody (Rockefeller University)
Motile organisms have developed strategies to move through natural environments, which are spatially complex and can fluctuate with time. Understanding the physics behind these strategies is important for bioinspired…
Condensed and Living Matter seminar: "Mechanically Active Materials from Particle Assemblies"
Yifan Wang (California Institute of Technology)
Particulate materials, or granular materials, are collections of discrete solid particles ranging from nano- to macroscopic sizes. They are usually disordered, and are known to exhibit complex physical phenomena such…
Condensed and Living Matter Seminar: "How life shapes the lifeless world: Self-organization and mechanics in biological active matter"
Shreyas Gokhale (Massachusetts Institute of Technology)
Biological systems are composed of soft deformable components that are mechanically actuated by active agents such as molecular motors that locally consume free energy to generate motion. Beyond their vital role in…
Condensed and Living Matter Seminar: "Odyssey in the Critical Landscape: Quantum Phase Transitions beyond the Landau Paradigm"
Bi Zhen (Massachusetts Institute of Technology)
Phase transitions are among the most complex and intriguing phenomena in physics. The Landau-Ginzburg-Wilson-Fisher theory of phase transitions, associated with the onset of a spontaneously broken…
Condensed and Living Matter Seminar: "Deconstructing how cellular interactions ensure robust morphogenesis"
Hannah Yevick (Massachusetts Institute of Technology)
Correct tissue shape is essential for proper tissue function. It is therefore crucial that key morphogenetic processes are robust to perturbations. While many genetic and molecular strategies that lead to robust…
Condensed and Living Matter Seminar: "Fluid-structure interactions for energy and climate"
Ching-Yao Lai (Columbia University)
Understanding the interactions between soft structures and fluid flows is critical for a broad range of applications including energy, biotechnology, geophysics, and climate science. When fluid flows through a…