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We report the discovery of the first 'ghostly' damped Ly$\alpha$ absorption system (DLA), which is identified by the presence of absorption from strong low-ion species at $z_{\rm abs}=1.70465$ along the line of sight to the quasar…
The evolution of the metallicity of damped Lyman alpha systems (DLAs) is investigated in order to understand the nature of these systems. The observational data on chemical abundances of DLAs are analysed with robust statistical methods,…
Topological defects are typically quantified relative to ordered backgrounds. The importance of these defects to the understanding of physical phenomena including diverse equilibrium melting transitions from low temperature ordered to…
Water is a ubiquitous liquid with unique physico-chemical properties, whose nature has shaped our planet and life as we know it. Water in restricted geometries has different properties than in bulk. Confinement can prevent low-temperature…
Amorphous solids exhibit intrinsic, local structural transitions, that give rise to the well known quantum-mechanical two-level systems at low temperatures. We explain the microscopic origin of the electric dipole moment of these two-level…
The presence of a second critical point in water has been a topic of intense investigation for the last few decades. The molecular origins underlying this phenomenon are typically rationalized in terms of the competition between local…
Acoustic levitation is a container-free method for examining novel crystallization effects, though liquid-to-solid phase change has seen little investigation for levitated nanofluids. Recent developments have allowed for examining the…
Colloids are abundant in nature, science and technology, with examples ranging from milk to quantum dots and the "colloidal atom" paradigm. Similarly, liquid crystal ordering is important in contexts ranging from biological membranes to…
What characterises a solid is its way to respond to external stresses. Ordered solids, such crystals, display an elastic regime followed by a plastic one, both well understood microscopically in terms of lattice distortion and dislocations.…
Ionic liquid crystals (ILCs) are anisotropic mesogenic molecules which additionally carry charges. This combination gives rise to a complex interplay of the underlying (anisotropic) contributions to the pair interactions. It promises…
Using molecular dynamics simulations we study the temperature-density phase diagram of a simple model system of particles in two dimensions. In addition to translational degrees of freedom, each particle has two internal states and…
The solidity of glassy materials is believed to be due to the cage formed around each particle by its neighbors, but in reality the details of cage-formation remain elusive [1-4]. This cage starts to be formed at the onset…
Space-filling assemblies of athermal hydrophobic particles floating at an air-water interface, called particle rafts, are shown to undergo an unusual phase transition between two i.e., a low density `less-rigid and a high density…
Coulomb plasmas crystallize in a number of physical systems, such as dusty plasmas, neutron star crusts, and white dwarf cores. The crystal structure of the one component and binary plasma has received significant attention in the…
The inherent structure approach, wherein thermodynamic and structural changes in glass forming liquids are analyzed in terms of local potential energy minima that the liquid samples, has recently been applied extensively to the study of…
One dramatic feature of network liquids is the emergence at low temperatures and high pressures of polyamorphism, where multiple distinct liquid phases are accessed in a single material. Polyamorphism can arise from the competition between…
Water and silicon are chemically dissimilar substances with common physical properties. Their liquids display a temperature of maximum density, increased diffusivity on compression, they form tetrahedral crystals and tetrahedral amorphous…
Computer simulations of simple model systems for liquid crystals are briefly reviewed, with special emphasis on systems of ellipsoids. First, we give an overview over some of the most commonly studied systems (ellipsoids, Gay-Berne…
Soft materials with a liquid component are an emerging paradigm in materials design. The incorporation of a liquid phase, such as water, liquid metals, or complex fluids, into solid materials imparts unique properties and characteristics…
Understanding the history and evolution of small bodies, such as dust grains and comets, in planet-forming disks is very important to reveal the architectural laws responsible for the creation of planetary systems. These small bodies in…