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SUMMARY:Lucasian Professorship Inaugural Lecture - Two Theories of Jamming
  Transitions - Professor Mike Cates
DTSTART:20151104T170000Z
DTEND:20151104T180000Z
UID:TALK60957@talks.cam.ac.uk
CONTACT:June Rix
DESCRIPTION:If drivers on a crowded road try to move slowly they will succ
 eed\, but if they try to move faster the result is a stationary traffic ja
 m. \nRelated jamming transitions arise in various other contexts and I wil
 l describe theories for two such cases. The first concerns a model of self
 -propelled repulsive particles\, which is relevant to swimming microbes an
 d their synthetic analogues\, but could also describe dodgems at a funfair
 . Here\, jamming causes phase separation into dense and dilute regions -- 
 an outcome that would\, without self-propulsion\, require attractions betw
 een the particles. The second  jamming transition arises on shearing a den
 se suspension of hard spheres: a free-flowing fluid suddenly solidifies wh
 en pushed too hard. This is disruptive in industrial contexts\, and can be
  appreciated in the kitchen by adding a little water to corn-starch or cus
 tard powder. I will show how a smooth stress dependence of the mean fricti
 on at individual particle contacts leads inevitably to a discontinuity in 
 macroscopic behaviour.\n
LOCATION:MR2\, Centre for Mathematical Sciences
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