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Research Highlight (See all of our publications)
Proc. Roy. Soc. A 478 (2022) 20210725, by
Brook J. Hocking, Helen S. Ansell, Randall D. Kamien, and Thomas Machon
Crystals and other condensed matter systems
described by density waves often exhibit dislocations.
Here we show, by considering the topology of the
ground state manifolds (GSMs) of such systems,
that dislocations in the density phase field always
split into disclinations, and that the disclinations
themselves are constrained to sit at particular phase
values in the GSM. This constraint on the location
of the disclinations results in an energy barrier to
dislocation glide. Consequently, the topology of the
GSM alone gives rise to a Peierls–Nabarro barrier.
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- David King arrives from Cambridge! Welcome! (October 2021)
- Helen Ansell successfully defends her thesis! Congratulations Dr.
Ansell! (April 2021)
- Helen Ansell accepts postdoctoral position at Northwestern
University! (March 2021)
- Nandita Chaturvedi accepts postdoctoral position at the National
Centre for Biological Sciences in Bangalore! (November 2020)
- Daria Atkinson arrives from UMass Amherst! Welcome! (September
2020)
- Nandita Chaturvedi successfully defends her thesis! Congratulations
Dr. Chaturvedi! (August 2020)
- Lisa Tran wins 2020 Glenn Brown Dissertation Prize of the
International Liquid Crystal Society For her outstanding work on
the geometric confinement introducing complex defect structures and
revealing new insight into liquid crystal self-organization. Her work
exploits an elegant interplay of topological constraints and geometric
frustration to guide the formation of unexpected self-assembled complex
structures. (May 2020)
- Lisa Tran accepts faculty position at Utrecht University. (May
2019)
- Eric Horsley successfully defends thesis! (January 2019)
- Hillel Aharoni accepts faculty position at the Weizmann Institute!
(November 2018)
- Helen Ansell awarded Department of Physics and Astronomy's 2018 Werner B.
Teutsch Prize, Awarded annually to the graduate student who, by his
or her performance in the first year courses, shows the most promise for
outstanding achievement in research. (June 2018)
- Hillel Aharoni wins 2018 Michi Nakata Prize for Early Career
Achievements of the International
Liquid Crystal Society For his impressive evolution of research on
topological and geometric applications in soft matter physics from the
pattern formation in smectic liquid crystals, demonstrating how nature
uses simple geometric principles for achieving complex functionality. His
unusual broad view on the soft matter physics including liquid crystal
physics, based on strong mathematical and geometrical skills, will make
him grow as a prominent scientist. (June 2018)
- Ex-postdoc Tom Machon wins 2018 Glenn Brown Dissertation Prize
of the International Liquid Crystal Society
For his theoretical work on the topology and field states in soft
matters, especially in complex liquid crystalline environments, with the
goal to predict and determine topological properties of the objects such
as field knots and topological defects. Another aspect of his
contribution to soft matter, the stability of minimal surfaces, opens up
a fascinating new field at the intersection of physics and mathematics. (June 2018)
- Ex-student Dan Beller accepts faculty position at UC Merced! (June 2018)
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Last Modified 12 May 2022