(Back to the menu - click here.)

Date:

Download-files:

Time:

Thursday, 28 Sept 2023

Video-Recording for any system with MP4-support

- Video.mp4 (ca. 450 Mb)

15:15 – 16:25

Albanova colloquium: “Chiral critical matter"

Prof. Leo Radzihovsky

(University of Colorado at Boulder)

Abstract:

Liquid crystals are fascinating materials - quintessential condensed

matter exhibiting an array of complex phases of fundamental scientific

interest and at the heart of liquid crystal display revolution. I will

take the audience on a bit of a roller coaster ride, pedagogically

discussing a recently discovered exotic liquid crystal state, the

"heliconical nematic", that exhibits a long sought-after spontaneous

chiral symmetry breaking. I will also explain how low-energy physics of

some states of matter can be understood as an emergent Higgs mechanism,

with critical fluctuations extending throughout the low-temperature

"critical phase”.

About the speaker:

Leo Radzihovsky is a Professor of Physics at the University of Colorado.

He got his Ph.D. at Harvard University in 1993. His distinctions include

Simons Investigator in Physics (since 2014), Miller Professor at Berkeley

(2008), Fellow of the American Physical Society (2003), and the US

National Science Foundation CAREER Award (1996-2000).