Dresden 2017 – scientific programme

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TUT: Tutorien

TUT 3: Tutorial: Patterns in Nature and Materials (DY/BP/CPP)

TUT 3.1: Tutorial

Sunday, March 19, 2017, 16:00–16:50, HSZ 04

The fascination of pattern formation: Basic principles, applications, future directions — •Walter Zimmermann — Theoretische Physik I, Universität Bayreuth, 95440 Bayreuth, Germany

Self-organization and pattern formation are fundamental strategies in nature. In this talk I will give an introduction to the field and explain some main concepts with experiments. Using several examples from physics, biology or material science, I will illustrate that the mechanism driving a spatially extended pattern, like a stripe or traveling wave pattern, are vastly different in diverse systems. However, are there also common features in, for example, cloud streets, Turing patterns, wrinkles or stripes in active matter and fluids? I will explain that each nonlinear pattern has a number of robust and system-independent properties and that the concepts of pattern formation provide a theoretical framework for their generic properties. Why are patterns of different wavenumbers stable in homogeneous systems (variability)? By which generic principles can a pattern be selected or controlled? How do patterns interact with their environment such as boundaries or inhomogenities? Which functions do patterns in nature fulfill? Besides addressing these elementary questions, I will also highlight recent developments in the field, applications in emerging fields and possible future directions of pattern formation.