Liquid Crystals

1
Soft condensed-matter theory
Chris Santangelo
Length scales nm - um Energy scales kBT
Reddy Tschierske, J. Mat. Chem.16, 907 (2006)
What principles connect particle interactions to
large-scale structure of a material?
Develop new theoretical tools to study nonlinear
problems.
Combine physics with elements of polymer science,
biology, mathematics, chemistry,
Liquid Crystals
isotropic
Topological defects, geometrical frustration,
nonlinear elasticity, geometry,
Santangelo Kamien, PRL 96, 137801 (2006)
2
Soft condensed-matter theory
Chris Santangelo
Self-Assembly
What principles govern allowable structures?
Rational design of molecules for new materials
http//www.msri.org/publications/sgp/jim/models/co
polymers/
Biologically-inspired Physics
Courtesy of Matt Glaser See Glaser et al.
cond-mat/0609570
Charge correlation-induced attraction
Biology as self-assembly (biological filaments,
fluid membranes, nonequilibrium
self-organization, )
Hud Downing, PNAS 98, 14925 (2001).
For more information see http//www.physics.upenn.
edu/santancd
Email santancd_at_physics.upenn.edu