Special CPM Seminar

Polytetrahedral Frustration of Crystallization: 2, 3, and 4D!

Patrick Charboneau

Duke University

Most glasses form under conditions where the thermodynamically stable state of the system is crystalline. Good glass formers should therefore be poor crystallizers. Geometrical frustration is one of the factors that prevent the timely formation of ordered phases and therefore help glass formation. Simple liquids are often considered frustrated because the five-fold symmetry of icosahedral clusters cannot tile a regular lattice. This contrasts with what happens in a fluid of two-dimensional disks, where hexagonal order is both locally and globally preferred and where crystallization is particularly easy. Yet the nature of frustration in 3D is ambiguous. To learn more about frustration in liquids, we explore the properties 4D hard spheres. Bring your imagination.