Optimal shapes in condensed matter and biological systems

Lecture course in summer semester 2015 (2 credit points)
in collaboration with the Berlin Mathematical School

Lecturer:
Dr. Myfanwy Evans, Technical University Berlin

Dates:
June 8, 11, 15, 18, and 29
July 2, 6, and 9

Time:
Monday, 10.15 - 11.45 h
Thursday, 10.15 - 11.45 h
Exception for Thursday, July 9: 14.15 - 15.45 h

Place:
ER 164  (TU Berlin, ER-building)

First lecture:
Monday, June 8, 2015

Course Outline:
The course will contain an introduction to "optimal" shapes in physics. The central theme will revolve around a set of space-filling surfaces called triply-periodic minimal surfaces, such as the Gyroid minimal surface, and their appearance throughout synthetic and biological matter.
We will explore techniques to describe these and other complicated structures, reasons why such negative curvature structures form, and what functions these structures have in the biological world.
From this central theme, we will branch out into topics such as surface area minimisation, symmetry, biological membranes, entanglement, polymer self-assembly, hyperbolic tilings, brilliant butterflies and wrinkly skin.

Lecture Material:
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