Dr. Katherine Newhall will be giving a talk on October 23, from 4:00-5:00 pm, in SCP 229. The title of her talk is “Investigating jammed matter from a ‘granocentric’ point of view.” Everyone is encouraged to attend.
Abstract:
What do sand, soap foam, and skin have in common? They all divide space into local cells, forming a sort of unorganized mosaic. Common statistical properties of these mosaic tilings of space can be understood from a model for the local packing of hard spheres: The ‘granocentric’ model. I will discuss the mathematics behind the granocentric model, which is based on a stochastic process, and how it can be used to understand some of the unique physical properties of jammed matter, as well as draw connections to soap foams and epithelial tissues.