CAREER: Structure and Dynamics of Disordered and Out-of-Equilibrium Systems

Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore MD

Investigators

Abstract

This CAREER development project considers an common and intriguing aspect of condensed matter systems: Many naturally occurring, or artificially structured, materials fail to achieve thermodynamic equilibrium. In some cases this is desirable, as in molecular beam epitaxy. But in bulk materials, understanding out-of-equilibrium behavior is crucial to achieve a complete description of the system. This project involves the development of an integrated education and research program designed to play a leading role in advancing the frontier field of disordered and out-of-equilibrium systems. Susceptibility studies, which characterize macroscopic response, and x-ray and neutron scattering, which directly probe microscopic behavior, will be applied in concert to model disordered systems such as liquid crystals, sheared fluids, and quenched glass formers. The objective is to illuminate essential features of the out-of-equilibrium "state" and to test new theoretical paradigms. In parallel with this, an interdisciplinary course on the science of complex fluids will be initiated at Johns Hopkins and an undergraduate thesis program for Physics and Astronomy majors will be developed. Collectively, these efforts, along with the coordination of community outreach between Hopkins and local public schools, will seek to create a prominent and productive program on the physics of out-of-equilibrium systems that strives to be inclusive of young scientists and potential scientists. This is a CAREER development project in the field of condensed matter physics. In many common materials, the microscopic constituents are subjected to forces that prevent the materials from organizing in their most energy efficient and simplest state. These forces can be "intrinsic" as in the forces between molecules that lead to a liquid cooling into glass, instead of a crystal, or "external", as for a fluid confined within tiny randomly connected pores. Again the fluid is prevented from reaching solid state with long-range order. In either case the resulting disorganization creates unique material properties that pose unusual challenges for physics. This project will develop an integrated education and research program designed to play a leading role in advancing physical insight into such "disordered" materials. The research strategy will involve experimental comparisons of different realizations of disorder in order to elucidate potentially universal features that might form the basis for a broad theoretical understanding. In parallel with this work, an interdisciplinary course on the science of these materials targeted at upper-level undergraduates and beginning graduate students will be initiated at Johns Hopkins and an undergraduate thesis program for Physics and Astronomy majors will be developed. Collectively, these efforts, along with the coordination of community outreach between Hopkins and local public schools, will seek to advance the science of disorder in a manner that strives to be inclusive of young scientists and potential scientists.