Smectics! – Randall Kamien
Date: Thu. April 26th, 2012, 4:15 pm-5:15 pmLocation: Rockefeller 301
The homotopy theory of topological defects in ordered media fails to completely characterize systems with broken translational symmetry. I will demonstrate that the topological problem can be transformed into a geometric problem in one higher dimension. Fortunately, for two-dimensional smectics this amounts to the theory of surfaces in three space! Our work suggests natural generalizations of the two-dimensional smectic theory to higher dimensions and to crystals.