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Physical Society Colloquium
Ken Elder Oakland University Morphological patterns occur on every length scale in nature, from microscopic dendritic patterns in binary alloys to macroscopic sand ripples on a beach to immense density fluctuations in the universe. Often the formation and evolution of such pattern are controlled by topological defects that arise from a few simple physical constraints. In this talk it will be shown how this simplicity can be exploited to construct minimal models of pattern formation in material science. As a particular example, a new model of crystal growth will be presented that describes growth on atomic length scales but macroscopic time scales. This allows `atomic' simulations that are at least a million times faster than standard molecular dynamics simulations.
Friday, December 7th 2001, 15:30 |