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Center for Nonlinear Studies |
The van der Waals theory guides our understanding of the fundamental importance of short-range attraction in liquid formation. Attempting an extension of this standard potential with short-range attraction (e.g. Lennard-Jones), Lebowitz and Penrose in 1966 considered the role of a second length-scale that introduces a long-range repulsion. This effective potential with competing interactions (short-range attraction with long-range repulsion) has since helped describe many a disparate system including pattern forming lipid monolayers, quantum dot and non-wire assembly, protein & DNA assembly, as well as colloidal systems. Like any scientific field making rapid progress, this area too has witnessed its fair share of divergent opinions on occasion.
In this talk, I will discuss a numerical study (molecular dynamics simulations) of two dimensional particulate systems with competing interactions. With repulsion length (Debye screening length) acting as the lone control parameter tuning the interaction, we chart the Temperature-Density-Repulsion Length-Quench parameter space. Structurally, thermodynamically, and morphologically distinct states are identified which include non-compact equilibrium clusters that turn glassy with infinite quench, compact clusters of Wigner glass that arise without a quench protocol but vanish in the presence of quench, percolating soft gels etc. I will present current results in this work which is still in progress.
This work was conducted in collaboration with Dr. Tamoghna Das and was internally funded by the OIST Graduate University, Japan.
Host: Avadh Saxena, 7-5227