Event



Workshop on Topology: Identifying Order in Complex Systems

David Srolovitz (UPenn), Joshua Plotkin (UPenn), Stephen Watson, (University of Glasgow)
- | DRL, rooms 4N12, A6, A8
* 1:30pm, DRL 4N12, David Srolovitz (UPenn), Properties of Cellular Microstrucures: polycrystals, foams, and their idealizations Cellular structures are compact domains joined along codimension 1 interfaces to fill space. Such cellular microstructures are ubiquitous in materials science and biology. I will briefly review the basic theory of cellular structure evolution via capillarity (surface tension) forces and then discuss some recent simulation results for such evolving microstructures. The main focus of the presentation will be on the analysis of the structure of these cellular ensembles - including both geometric and topological measures
* 3pm, DRL A6, Joshua Plotkin (UPenn), Evolutionary dynamics on correlated fitness landscapes.
* 4:30pm, DRL A8 (joint with math department), Stephen Watson, (University of Glasgow), Towards a Covariant Theory of Coarsening via Emergent Symmetries The scaling symmetries of both static and dynamic critical phenomena naturally yield associated power laws and scaling functions. Going beyond simple scalings, we reveal how general emergent symmetries control the coarsening statistics of non-equilibrium phase ordering systems. In particular, we discover that a supersymmetric-Lorentzian-Parabolic symmetry group G governs the surface statistics of a class of non-equilibrium, nano-faceting crystal growth models.