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Tuesday, March 10, 2009
1:00 PM - 2:00 PM
CNLS Conference Room (TA-3, Bldg 1690)

Seminar

The Mysterious Glass Transition

James Langer
University of California at Santa Barbara

One of the most fascinating mysteries in physics is the nature of the glass transition. Is the transition between a liquid and a glass a true thermodynamic phase transition? What mechanism causes the viscosities of glass-forming liquids effectively to diverge at finite temperatures? What is the connection between this dynamic behavior and the remarkable thermodynamic properties of these materials? In this lecture, I will review earlier theoretical approaches to this subject and present some recent ideas of my own.

Host: Bob Ecke, T-CNLS