Prof. Randall D. Kamien: Burgers, Lorentz, and Smectics

This Thursday Prof. Randall D. Kamien from University of Pennsylvania will give a talk "Burgers, Lorentz, and Smectics"

Smectic liquid crystals represent the simplest form of broken translational order. The textures seen when defects occur, be they dislocations or disclinations, are the usual means for identifying these phases. I will discuss new methods for visualizing and generating ground state configurations with prescribed topology.