Workshop Support for "Particulate Matter: Does Dimensionality Matter?"; Max Planck Institute for the Physics of Complex Systems; Dresden, Germany

North Carolina State University, Raleigh NC

Investigators

Abstract

The story Flatland helped 19th century readers understand the metaphorical role of the fourth dimension. Higher dimensions now help 21st century scientists to better understand our comparatively low-dimensional world. The pattern of coins packed on a tabletop or oranges piled on a grocer's stand have both similarities and differences. By examining similar problems in dimensions higher than two or three, we are able to obtain additional points of comparison. Similarly, progress in understanding dense particulate matter such as colloids, granular materials, glasses, or emulsions is starting to arise from comparing and contrasting the behavior of related phenomena in different spatial dimensions. A variety of experimental and theoretical techniques allow for this exploration, but interestingly, different approaches sometimes lead to differing answers as to how dimensionality influences a phenomenon. Some even argue that dimension plays little role on their subfield. Can we make sense of this conundrum? Since progress is taking place on many continents and in different fields (mathematics, engineering, and basic sciences), there is a need to bring researchers together for an extended and focused period of time to sketch the road ahead and to capture the momentum created by these often independent developments. This grant will help support the travel of graduate students and postdoctoral trainees from the US to a workshop addressing questions of dimensionality in dense particulate matter to be held in Dresden, Germany. These junior researchers will be enabled to present talks and posters to the international audience of experts in the various sub-fields. The participation of students and postdoctoral fellows in international workshops is key to training an internationally competitive workforce in this rapidly developing field for which university coursework does not yet exist. The workshop has two features that are aimed at encouraging junior researchers to build future collaborations with the international community: the pairing of formal talks with organized discussions, and the allotment of time for small-group interactions.