
NSF Org: |
DMR Division Of Materials Research |
Recipient: |
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Initial Amendment Date: | February 5, 2013 |
Latest Amendment Date: | February 6, 2017 |
Award Number: | 1255370 |
Award Instrument: | Continuing Grant |
Program Manager: |
Germano Iannacchione
giannacc@nsf.gov (703)292-4431 DMR Division Of Materials Research MPS Directorate for Mathematical and Physical Sciences |
Start Date: | February 15, 2013 |
End Date: | January 31, 2020 (Estimated) |
Total Intended Award Amount: | $560,000.00 |
Total Awarded Amount to Date: | $560,000.00 |
Funds Obligated to Date: |
FY 2014 = $110,000.00 FY 2015 = $110,000.00 FY 2016 = $100,000.00 FY 2017 = $100,000.00 |
History of Investigator: |
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Recipient Sponsored Research Office: |
1776 E 13TH AVE EUGENE OR US 97403-1905 (541)346-5131 |
Sponsor Congressional District: |
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Primary Place of Performance: |
1274 University of Oregon Eugene OR US 97403-1274 |
Primary Place of
Performance Congressional District: |
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Unique Entity Identifier (UEI): |
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Parent UEI: |
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NSF Program(s): | CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS |
Primary Program Source: |
01001718DB NSF RESEARCH & RELATED ACTIVIT 01001415DB NSF RESEARCH & RELATED ACTIVIT 01001617DB NSF RESEARCH & RELATED ACTIVIT 01001516DB NSF RESEARCH & RELATED ACTIVIT |
Program Reference Code(s): |
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Program Element Code(s): |
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Award Agency Code: | 4900 |
Fund Agency Code: | 4900 |
Assistance Listing Number(s): | 47.049 |
ABSTRACT
****Technical Abstract****
Materials that undergo a Jamming-unjamming transition are ubiquitous in nature: a pile of sand, a sack of marbles, and a raft of bubbles are examples of disordered particulate systems at the edge of stability. The transition from jammed to flowing, just like the glass-transition, has many of the hallmarks of a phase transition without fitting cleanly into any existing phase transitions theories. This project will pursue a multipronged approach, combining new experimental and simulational techniques to explore jammed systems in dimensions d=2, 3 and higher. If a mean-field theory of jamming exists, it is expected that its predictions should become increasingly exact with increasing dimension. Using newly developed simulations, this project will measure the scaling behavior of high-dimensional systems close to jamming. These results will be used both to test the validity of the recently proposed mean-field Gaussian Replica-Theory of jammed systems as well as to develop a renormalization approach towards understanding the geometric structures of such packings. If a full renormalization treatment is achieved, this will represent a true breakthrough in the study of jammed systems and would have broad impact for the study of jammed, glassy, and frustrated systems. This project will support the education and career development of a PhD student well versed in both cutting edge experimental and simulational science. The successful completion of these studies will provide a quantitative understanding of the geometric and mechanical phase transitions underlying the jamming transition in dimensions two, three, and higher.
****Non-Technical Abstract****
Jamming is ubiquitous in nature and industry: a sand dune, a sack of grain, a pile of coal, and the powders that make medicines are all examples of disordered particulate systems at the edge of stability. They seem solid enough at first push, but give them a hard shove and they simply flow out of the way. Yet, for all of their ubiquity, they remain poorly understood. One of the ironies of nature is that often by imagining what the world would be like in much higher dimensions, we can better understand and explain the world as it is. Thus, studying the jamming of particles in (for example) 7 dimensions will shed light on such prosaic questions as "How does one design a better grain hopper?" This project will pursue a multipronged approach to explore jammed systems in the real world, in dimensions d=2, 3 and higher. This project will: measure the static and dynamic properties of a jammed emulsion, a model system for studies of jamming; drive the state of the art forward in high speed microscopy techniques; develop new computer programs and algorithms to harness cutting-edge supercomputers and simulate the interactions of an enormous number of particles in dimensions as high as the thirteenth dimension; and support the education and career development of a PhD student well versed in both cutting edge experimental and simulational science; pioneer a Visiting Artist program designed to spark public interest and appreciation in real science in ways that a purely scientific discourse cannot.
PUBLICATIONS PRODUCED AS A RESULT OF THIS RESEARCH
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PROJECT OUTCOMES REPORT
Disclaimer
This Project Outcomes Report for the General Public is displayed verbatim as submitted by the Principal Investigator (PI) for this award. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this Report are those of the PI and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation; NSF has not approved or endorsed its content.
The research supported by this award has advanced our understanding of the Jamming transition and has also led to new discoveries of ever deeper and more fundamental links between the jamming and glass transitions. Our work has demonstrated that these transitions are linked by an underlying Gardner transition, as predicted by mean field theories.
This grant has resulted in 23 peer review publications, including 2 in PNAS, 6 in Physical Review Letters, and 2 in Soft Matter.
Significant achievements include:
a) The first direct measurement of a Gardner Phase in a physical glass, in our case a colloidal glass. This measurement was undertaken with the use of high speed microscopy to allow for measurements of the change in the functional form of the mean square displacement of colloids moving on the nano-meter scale. This result places the theorized Gardner transition on firm footing for thermal glasses.
b) The first direct evidence of an ultrametric structure in the energy basins of jammed packings. This result places the theorized Gardner transition on firm footing for athermal jammed packings.
c) The development and measurement of a fundamental definition for the configurational entropy in jammed systems based on an extension of the Force Network Ensemble. This work settles long standing questions about the applicability of statistical mechanical approaches to jamming in the affirmative.
d) Demonstration that the mean field predictions for jammed packings have no meaningful limit of applicability, extending from high dimensional systems all the way down to 2d systems and even to systems not traditionally considered as amorphous, such as slightly polydisperse crystalline systems.
e) Multiple new geometric tools with which to characterize jamming and which can serve as meaningful order parameters with which to describe the transition.
f) The development and characterization of a novel two dimensional thermal system composed of chaotic Farady waves. This system has been shown to satisfy dissipation relaxation relations and to behave as an ideal two dimensional gas.
The research supported by this award has had broad societal and educational impacts:
a) In addition to the fundamental scientific advances this work has lead to advances in understanding that impacts on many other fields of science and engineering. Chiefly among them are applications to the technological development of structural glasses.
b) In completing this project we have developed new GPU accelerated software for generating and interrogation jammed sphere packings in arbitrary dimensions. This software is gaining currency within our scientific community and already has attracted many external users.
b) This project has supported three visiting artists in the creation and dissemination of artist work about and in response to the jamming research done in our lab. The first artist was artist Audra Wolowiec <http://www.audrawolowiec.com> is an interdisciplinary artist whose work mines themes of communication and modes of exchange. Viewed scientifically, her work playfully draws on concepts from materials science, soft matter, and fluid dynamics. In the lab Audra created two bodies of work: 1) "The Archeology of Failure" exploring the role of failure and resiliency within the scientific enterprise and 2) "Multivariable Feedback Control" exposing the hidden poetry behind dry-seeming scientific concepts and jargon. Woloweic's work has been disseminated broadly through international and local exhibitions and artist lectures. The second artist was Marisa Olson <http://www.marisaolson.com/>. Olson's interdisciplinary work incorporates new media, video, performance, drawing, and installation to address the cultural history of technology and the politics of participation in popular culture. During her residency Olson's major work was related to an artistic documentary film about her collision with the scientists working in our lab. This was accomplished through extensive filmed interviews with the lab members as well as additional footage collected by Olson. The final artist was Mandy Keathley, <http://mandykeathley.com/> a sculptor and photographer. Mandy's work in the lab explored the messy and random features of granular materials and their relation to abstract geometric forms. She produced a series of sculptural and photographic works both incorporating and inspired by the random force networks and configurations of granular materials. Her work was disseminated in international exhibitions and online.
c) This project also supported the University of Oregon's "Summer Academy to Inspire Learning" program for underserved high school students from the nearby Springfield, OR school district. We hosted a yearly hands-on exploratory event focused on complex fluids and phase transitions.
d) The PI has been visible in the soft matter community and has played a leading role in the profession by co-organizing the 2015 Boulder School, serving on the membership committee for the leadership of the then GSOFT APS group, and participating in numerous schools, programs, and conferences.
Last Modified: 03/16/2020
Modified by: Eric I Corwin
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