Related papers: Orientational Order in Disordered Colloidal Suspen…
The precise nature of complex structural relaxation as well as an explanation for the precipitous growth of relaxation time in cooling glass-forming liquids are essential to the understanding of vitrification of liquids. The dramatic…
Using a phase field crystal model we study the structure and dynamics of a drop of colloidal suspension during evaporation of the solvent. We model an experimental system where contact line pinning of the drop on the substrate is…
How condensed-matter simulations depend on the number of molecules being simulated ($N$) is sometimes itself a valuable piece of information. Liquid crystals provide a case in point. Light scattering and $2d$-IR experiments on…
Using video microscopy, we measure local spatial constraints in disordered binary colloidal samples, ranging from dilute fluids to jammed glasses, and probe their spatial and temporal correlations to local dynamics during the glass…
We consider the idea of bond ordering as a model for glass transition: a generic covalently bonded liquid may substantially reduce its energy through bond ordering, without undergoing significant structural order. This concept is developed…
So-called polar liquid crystals possess spontaneous long-range mutual orientation of their electric dipole moments, conferring bulk polarity to fluid phases of matter. The combination of polarity and fluidity leads to complex phase…
The stability of a vortex glass phase with quasi-long-range positional order is examined for a disordered layered superconductor. The role of topological defects is investigated using a detailed scaling argument, supplemented by a…
Glasses and gels are the two dynamically arrested, disordered states of matter. Despite their importance, their similarities and differences remain elusive, especially at high density. We identify dynamical and structural signatures which…
Among the many physical properties, the amorphous state manifests itself in the most spectacular way in heat transport. Anomalously low thermal conductivity, its low-temperature dependence as a function of temperature, the presence of a…
Phase separation in a complex fluid with lamellar order has been studied in the case of cold thermal fronts propagating diffusively from external walls. The velocity hydrodynamic modes are taken into account by coupling the…
Snapshots of colloidal particles moving on disordered two-dimensional substrates can be used to extract equal-time many-body correlations in their positions. To understand the systematics of these correlations, we perform Monte Carlo…
Little is known about the coupling of rotation and translation in dense systems. Here, we report results of confocal fluorescence microscopy where simultaneous recording of translational and rotational particle trajectories from a…
While deeply supercooled liquids exhibit divergent viscosity and increasingly heterogeneous dynamics as the temperature drops, their structure shows only seemingly marginal changes. Understanding the nature of relaxation processes in this…
One of the greatest challenges in contemporary condensed matter physics is to ascertain whether the formation of glasses from liquids is fundamentally thermodynamic or dynamic in origin. While the thermodynamic paradigm has dominated…
The correlation between local structure and the propensity for structural rearrangements has been widely investigated in glass forming liquids and glasses. In this paper we use the excess two-body entropy $S_2$ and tetrahedrality $\n_{tet}$…
In equilibrium, disorder conspires with topological defects to redefine the ordered states of matter in systems as diverse as crystals, superconductors and liquid crystals. Far from equilibrium, however, the consequences of quenched…
We report an experimental study of the development of orientational order in a crumpled sheet, with a particular focus on the role played by the geometry of confinement. Our experiments are performed on elastomeric sheets immersed in a…
The most puzzling aspect of the glass transition observed in laboratory is an apparent decoupling of dynamics from structure. In this paper we recount the implication of various theories of glass transition for the static correlation length…
We present a mesoscopic lattice model for non-ideal fluid flows with directional interactions, mimicking the effects of hydrogen-bonds in water. The model supports a rich and complex structural dynamics of the orientational order parameter,…
Disordered systems like liquids, gels, glasses, or granular materials are not only ubiquitous in daily life and in industrial applications but they are also crucial for the mechanical stability of cells or the transport of chemical and…