Details zur Lehrveranstal­tung

Pattern formation and phase transitions in Soft Matter and Biophysics
Modul:	Phy-Ma-Vert: Physikalische Vertiefung
Lecture language	English
Summary of Lecture:	Ever wondered why oil droplets in pastis emerge and then grow in size clouding the liquid? Why a rubber band wrinkles as getting stretched? Or, a seemingly unorganised bunch of fish suddenly self-organizes as coherently moving flock? All these sudden changes in the physical state of the system fall into the class of instabilities and phase transitions. Their occurrence typically causes a severe change in the physical properties of the system, such as the propensity to flow, deform and conduct momentum. The dynamics of a phase transition may lead to fascinating, spatially inhomogeneous patterns including swirling and swarming flocks, demixed phases and periodically deformed solid-like materials (and many more). In this lecture we discuss many examples of systems which undergo a phase transition or an instability, in turn triggering the development of patterns. The examples are picked from soft matter and biophysics. Along the way we discuss the necessary theoretical concepts from non-linear dynamics, bifurcation theory, statistical mechanics and non-equilibrium thermodynamics.
	data set up-to-date
Scope:	lecture: 2 hours/week
Time/location:	MI 16:00-17:30 Uhr, MPI-PKS
Audience:	Vertiefung Bachelor (PV) und Master (alle)
Specialization area:
Previous knowledge:
Certificate:
Enrolment:	MPIPKS, Wednesday, 4 pm (please check Trello board)
Web-reference:	https://trello.com/b/JjWk05um
There will be plenty of interactive opportunities to discuss the content of the lecture and the problem sets. The solutions of weekly appearing problem sets will fit on one page. Instead of a written exam, students may select or suggest a lecture-related topic about which the student should give a talk at the end of the semester. The talk will be complemented by a discussion about the lecture.