Theoretical Sciences Unit Seminar - 27 May 2022

Date: 27th May 2022 (Friday)

Title: Emergent Electromagnetism in Jammed Granular Solids

Speaker Details

Speaker: Prof. Subhro Bhattacharjee

Affiliation: ICTS, Bangalore

Schedule

Date and Time: 27th May 2022 (Friday), 11:00 AM

Tea/Coffee: 10:45 AM

Venue: Kanada Auditorium, JNCASR

Abstract

Emergence of low energy degrees of freedom is a recurrent theme in condensed matter systems. In more familiar systems such as crystalline solids, the emergence of phonons as collective modes of vibration are associated mainly with broken translational symmetry that governs the physics at low temperatures. However, in a wide class of systems, local energetic constraints may take the form of Gauss's law, giving rise to an emergent electromagnetism at low energies.

In this talk, I shall show that local conditions of mechanical equilibrium in granular solids have the mathematical structure of a generalized Gauss's law for a rank-2 U(1) electromagnetism. The electrostatic limit of this tensor electromagnetism successfully captures the anisotropic "elasticity" of granular solids and provides a new framework to understand a large class of such systems.