Integrated Calendar

STATISTICAL MECHANICS DAY IV

June 23, 2011
09:00 to 17:30
Weizmann Institute of Science
Physics Building, Weissman Auditorium


09:00 – 09:30 Coffee

09:30 – 09:40 Opening Remarks – David Mukamel

09:40 – 10:00 Joel Lebowitz, Rutgers University
Phase diagram of a generalized ABC model on the interval
(joint work with J. Barton and E. Speer)

10:00 – 10:20 Itamar Procaccia, Weizmann Institute
The elusive static length characterizing the glass transition

10:20 – 10:40 Shlomo Havlin, Bar-Ilan University
Percolation of Network of Networks

10:40 – 11:00 Amnon Aharony, Ben-Gurion University and TAU
Multiferroics

Coffee Break

11:30 – 11:50 Martin Evans, University of Edinburgh
Diffusion with stochastic resetting
11:50 – 12:10 Yariv Kafri, Technion
Energy fluctuations in thermally isolated driven systems

12:10 – 12:30 Sahar Rahav,Technion
Extracting work from stochastic pumps

12:30 – 12:50 Ido Kanter, Bar-Ilan University
Nonlocal Mechanism for Synchronization of time delay networks

Lunch Break


14:00 – 14:20 M. Aizenman, Princeton University
Resonant delocalization of the eigenfunctions of random
Schrodinger operators on tree graphs
(joint work with S. Warzel)

14:20 – 14:40 Ofer Zeitouni, Weizmann Institute
Einstein relation on random trees

14:40 – 15:00 Armin Bunde, University of Giessen
Universal Scaling Features in Precipitation and River Flows
(joint work with Mikhail Bogachev)

15:00 – 15:20 Isaac Balberg, Hebrew University
The tunneling-percolation staircase

Coffee Break

15:50 – 16:10 Ofer Biham, Hebrew University
Competition, feedback and fluctuations in genetic regulatory modules

16:10 – 16:30 David Andelman, Tel-Aviv University
The Physics and Applications of Block Copolymer Films

16:30 – 16:50 Nadav Shnerb, Bar-Ilan University
Neutral dynamics and family statistics

16:50 – 17:10 Tridib Sadhu, Weizmann Institute
Long-range steady-state density profiles induced by localized drive.

17:10 – 17:30 Martin Frass, Technion
The geometry of dissipative response in dephasing open systems


Organizing Committee :
Gregory Falkovich
David Mukamel


Coordinating Secretary :
Perla Zalcberg – perla.zalcberg@weizmann.ac.il

An isolated macroscopic system in a nonequilibrium state at
time t' will typically go towards its equilibrium state as t increases. I will analyze the origin of this behavior in both classical and quantum mechanics. While our understanding of the classical case is, conceptually at least, complete this is not so for the quantum case, i.e. for the world we live in.

Diffusion MR has become one of the most important tools for studying the micro-architecture of porous systems in general and neuronal tissues in particular. Conventional single-PFG (s-PFG) MR methodologies are capable of faithfully providing information on the pore size and shape in coherently ordered, monodisperse systems; however, more heterogeneous scenarios are extremely difficult to directly characterize using conventional s-PFG methods.
In the lecture, we will introduce the double-Pulsed-Field-Gradient (d-PFG) MR methodology, and show that it can provide direct information on compartment size from the zero-crossing phenomenon that emerges even in the presence of size and shape distributions. We will then show that angular d-PFG MR can offer information on the underlying compartment shape anisotropy even in highly heterogeneous systems that are characterized by a high degree of disorder. Experiments performed on phantoms, yeast cells, isolated gray and white matter of the CNS, emulsions, and even rocks revealed that d-PFG NMR indeed offers information on the underlying micro-architecture that is not available from the conventional methods. Finally, we will show the first in-vivo d-PFG MRI experiments in the rat brain. There, the angular d-PFG MRI yielded new sources of contrast in the gray matter, which is perhaps the most challenging CNS tissue in terms of microstructural characterization.