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Monday, October 06, 2008
3:00 PM - 4:00 PM
CNLS Conference Room (TA-3, Bldg 1690)

Colloquium

Crackling Noise: Learning from Magnets about Earthquakes ?

Karin Dahmen
University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign (UIUC)

Models suggest that the earth and magnets crackle alike! We show how recent studies on magnetizing avalanches ("Barkhausen Noise") in magnets driven by a slowly increasing magnetic field shed light on modeling the statistics of earthquakes in irregularly shaped fault zones, and motivate new ways to analyze seismic data.In particular we focus on the universal, i.e. detail independent, effects of disorder in both cases. The studies draw on methods from the theory of phase transitions. Applications to other crackling systems are also discussed.

Host: Charles Reichhardt, T-13