The idea of this summer school is to create a friendly learning atmosphere, to enable open communication between students and lecturers, and create opportunities for students to make lasting contacts with peers at other universities.
Topics for 2022:
| Mark Bowick, University of California Santa Barbara |
Geometrical and topological principles in soft matter. I will discuss a number of topics in Topology and Geometry focusing on two key things: the appearance of topological defects in a wide variety of settings and the emergence of unusual ground states driven by geometry and energetics. The classification and description of defects will be introduced, followed by some of their properties and topological constraints. Then we will look at topological constraints in various settings and their role in influencing the ground states for a variety of systems. Finally we will look at their role in determining shape and have some fun with topological demonstrations. Some references:
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| Bulbul Chakraborty, Brandeis University |
Elasticity of amorphous solids. Diversity in the natural world emerges from the collective behavior of large numbers of interacting objects. Statistical physics provides the framework relating microscopic to macroscopic properties. A fundamental assumption underlying this approach is that we have complete knowledge of the interactions between the microscopic entities. But what if that, even though possible in principle becomes impossible in practice? Can we still construct a framework for describing their collective behavior? Dense suspensions and granular materials are two often quoted examples where we face this challenge. These are systems where because of the complicated surface properties of particles there is extreme sensitivity of the interactions to particle positions. In this series of lectures, I will present a perspective based on notions of constraint satisfaction that provides a way forward. I will focus on our recent work on the emergence of elasticity in the absence of any broken symmetry, and sketch out other problems that can be addressed using this perspective. | |||
| Narayanan Menon, University of Massachusetts Amherst | Elasto-capillary phenomena. There are many natural settings in which we encounter solid objects at a fluid interface, such as a raindrop on a window pane, or a leaf floating on the surface of a pond. We’ll start with examples such as these to build up the basic vocabulary of fluid-solid contact, but the main focus of this set of lectures will be situations where the solid object can deform significantly due to the presence of the fluid. These phenomena fall in two broad classes: one where the solid is intrinsically soft, and the other where the flexibility of the solid has a geometric origin. We will discuss relevant ideas on the capillarity of liquid interfaces and the elasticity of solids such as surface energy and tension, surface stresses, bending, and stretching; these are elementary concepts but can still cause confusion in these new contexts. These ideas will lead us to recently-studied elastocapillary phenomena such as wrapping and encapsulation by sheets, clumping of fibres, pattern formation, rigidity of solid-fluid composites, and control of droplet motion. | |||
| Julia Yeomans, Oxford University |
Physics and biology of active matter. Active materials such as bacteria, molecular motors and self-propelled colloids are Nature’s engines. They extract energy from their surroundings at a single particle level and use this to do work. Active matter is becoming an increasingly popular area of research because it provides a testing ground for the ideas of non-equilibrium statistical physics, because of its relevance to the collective behaviour of living creatures, from cells to starlings, and because of its potential in designing nanomachines.
In these lectures I will concentrate on dense active nematics. These show mesoscale, or active, turbulence, the emergence of chaotic flow structures characterised by high vorticity and motile topological defects. I will discuss the origins of the active stress and the physics of defects in active materials. I will then consider how to control active turbulence using confinement or friction. In his book What is Life? Schrodinger wrote “Living matter evades the decay to equilibrium” and the ideas of active matter are suggesting new ways to think about cell motility and morphogenesis. I will discuss recent work using continuum, vertex and phase field approaches to model the collective behaviour of cell colonies. |
Format:
For 2022, the Summer School will return to its customary fully in-person format. The school will be a 5-day residential program running from noon on Sunday, June 5 to Thursday Evening, June 9, 2022. Four lecturers will give mini-courses composed of four 90-min lectures. The lectures will be interspersed with student presentations, and some social activities. Typically, we will have four lectures a day, leaving time for discussions scientific and otherwise. The lecturers may set assignments. More details on the courses will appear here closer to the date of the school.
Location:
UMass Amherst, the flagship campus of the University of Massachusetts system, is located in the scenic Pioneer Valley of Western Massachusetts, a 2-hour drive from Boston and 3 hours from New York City. The area is home to UMass and to four other liberal arts colleges. The area has a rich cultural environment in a rural setting. There are also a number of outdoor activities to fill in your free time – hiking and biking trails criss-cross the area.
Logistics:
There will be a fee of $450 for attending the school. The fee will cover on-campus lodging at UMass, breakfast, lunch and refreshments, as well as two evening meals. On other evenings, we will leave you to explore the eateries, bars, coffee-shops of Amherst and neighboring Northampton. The town is a 15 minute walk from campus, and there is free public transportation connecting the university and the town. To apply to attend the summer school, fill out the application at the Apply tab above. The application deadline was Friday, April 1, 2022 – applications are now closed for the 2022 Summer School.
All participants in the Summer School will be required to abide by UMass coronavirus safety practices that are in effect at the time of the Summer School. Current campus safety practices may be seen here.
Posters:
All participants are encouraged to bring a poster describing the research they are involved in or going on in their research groups. These posters do not need to report new or finished research results, and can be less formal than posters you would present at a regular conference. We will have one or more poster sessions, where you can find out about what is happening at other universities.