PHYSICAL MATHEMATICS SEMINAR



TITLE:		  SNOWFLAKES, SHOCKS AND STRINGS: 
		 THE GEOMETRY OF CRYSTAL GROWTH AND OTHER THINGS

SPEAKER:	JOHN S. WETTLAUFER
		YALE UNIVERSITY



ABSTRACT:

During the winter of 1635 Descartes made a series of strikingly detailed observations and
interpretations of the shapes of snowflakes.  Hence, understanding the motion of interfaces
is an enterprise as old as the scientific method itself.  The enterprise is particularly relevant 
to pattern formation in condensed matter systems.  When we admire the form of a stone or
a snowflake, what we see is typically not an equilibrium shape, but rather, the result of a 
growth process.  The focus of the talk is on the manner in which microscopic effects, common
to all materials, conspire to produce macroscopic shapes.  Finally, it has waited for modern 
surface science and thermodynamics and teaches us the essence of the architecture of the snowflake.



TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 24, 2002
2:30 pm
Building 2, Room 338

Refreshments will be served at 3:30 PM in Room 2-349



Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Department of Mathematics
Cambridge, MA  02139