The second kind of impossible
Date
Monday, March 18, 2019 16:00 - 17:00
Speaker
Paul Steinhardt (Princeton University)
Location
Raiffeisen Lecture Hall
Series
Colloquium
Tags
Institute Colloquium
Host
Robert Seiringer
Contact
Quasicrystals are exotic forms of matter with symmetries that were once thought to be mathematically impossible. The first known examples were synthesized in the laboratory over 35 years ago, but could Nature have beaten us to the punch? This talk will describe the decades-long search to answer this question, resulting in one of the strangest scientific stories you are ever likely to hear.