Bulletin of the American Physical Society
APS March Meeting 2018
Volume 63, Number 1
Monday–Friday, March 5–9, 2018; Los Angeles, California
Session Y32: Condensed Matter Experiments on the ISSInvited Undergraduate
|
Hide Abstracts |
Sponsoring Units: FIP Chair: Maria Longobardi, University of Geneva Room: LACC 408A |
Friday, March 9, 2018 11:15AM - 11:51AM |
Y32.00001: Smectic Liquid Crystal Bubbles in Microgravity: Fluid Physics in Two Dimensions Invited Speaker: Joseph MacLennan The Observation and Analysis of Smectic Islands in Space (OASIS) project comprises a series of experiments that probe the interfacial and hydrodynamic behavior of thin, spherical-bubbles of smectic liquid crystal in microgravity. In fluid smectic phases, each molecular layer is a two-dimensional (2D) liquid, with only short-ranged positional pair correlations within the layer planes and from layer to layer in the direction parallel to the layer planes. Such materials can be used to draw very thin films across an aperture and to blow bubbles. The resulting structures are extremely stable and are uniform in thickness, apart from pancake-like inclusions with additional smectic layers called islands. Smectic films are the thinnest known stable condensed phase structures, making them ideal for studies of 2D coarsening dynamics and thermocapillary phenomena in microgravity. |
Friday, March 9, 2018 11:51AM - 12:27PM |
Y32.00002: Overcoming Kinetic Bottlenecks of Colloidal Self-Assembly Invited Speaker: Eric Furst Colloidal and nanoparticle self-assembly is a promising approach to the nanomanufacture of advanced functional materials capable of controlling the transport of heat, light, and chemical species. But while thermodynamics dictates the structures that form by self-assembly, the kinetics of colloidal assembly are often trapped into arrested, non-equilibrium states. |
Friday, March 9, 2018 12:27PM - 1:03PM |
Y32.00003: Colloid Physics Experiments on the ISS Invited Speaker: David Weitz This talk will describe results of colloid physics experiments carried out on the International Space Station as well as support work performed with ground based experiments. By eliminating the effects of gravitational settling, studies of the behavior of very slowly evolving samples can be carried out. New results of colloid-polymer phase behavior observed with optical photography will be described. These will be supplemented by ground-based results obtained on systems that are as closely bouyancy-matched as feasible. |
Friday, March 9, 2018 1:03PM - 1:39PM |
Y32.00004: Dusty Plasma Research under Microgravity Conditions on the ISS Invited Speaker: John Goree Dusty plasma is a four-component mixture of rarefied neutral gas, electrons, positive ions, and micron-size particles of solid matter. The solid particles, or “dust,” gain large electric charges by absorbing more light electrons than positive ions. A dusty plasma is analogous to a charged colloid, except that there is a rarefied gas instead of an aqueous solvent, so that buoyancy is negligible and the dust particles fall rapidly to the bottom of the experimental chamber in the presence of gravity. Microgravity conditions completely change an experiment, making it possible to fill a three-dimensional volume with the dust particles in a way that is impossible in terrestrial laboratories. Like a charged colloid, a dusty plasma can exhibit crystalline or liquid-like behavior on a macroscopic scale, using microscopic video imaging as a diagnostic, but the dust motion is underdamped, unlike the overdamped motion in a colloid. On the International Space Station (ISS), the European Space Agency operates a dusty plasma user facility called PK-4. The PK-4 scientific team, led by Germans and Russians, includes scientists in the US and other countries. Physics topics such as nonlinear waves and nonequilibrium statistical mechanics are studied by US scientists. Some early results will be presented along with plans for future experiments. |
Friday, March 9, 2018 1:39PM - 2:15PM |
Y32.00005: Coolest Spot in the Universe: Facility for Ultracold Atom Experiments Aboard the ISS Invited Speaker: Robert Thompson This abstract not available. |
Follow Us |
Engage
Become an APS Member |
My APS
Renew Membership |
Information for |
About APSThe American Physical Society (APS) is a non-profit membership organization working to advance the knowledge of physics. |
© 2024 American Physical Society
| All rights reserved | Terms of Use
| Contact Us
Headquarters
1 Physics Ellipse, College Park, MD 20740-3844
(301) 209-3200
Editorial Office
100 Motor Pkwy, Suite 110, Hauppauge, NY 11788
(631) 591-4000
Office of Public Affairs
529 14th St NW, Suite 1050, Washington, D.C. 20045-2001
(202) 662-8700