Colloquium | Institute of Mathematical Sciences
Time：16:00-17:00, Mar. 28, Thursday
Location：Room 302, Library
Speaker: Randall Kamien, Vicki and William Abrams Professor in the Natural Science, University of Pennsylvania
Abstract: Nearly 50 years ago, homotopy theory was employed to unify our understanding of topological defects in superfluids, superconductors, crystals, and liquid crystals. It was understood, however, that when there is broken translation invariance (as in crystals and some liquid crystals) that this approach required additional constraints. I will demonstrate the problem, propose a solution which allows us to characterize the topological defects in these systems, and demonstrate a new classification in the case of smectic liquid crystals, the simplest of these broken-translational-symmetry states.