Organizers:
Eran Sharon (The Hebrew University)
Eran Bouchbinder (Weizmann)
Shmuel Rubinstein (Harvard)
This conference is a tribute to the prolific and highly influential scientific work of Prof.Jay Fineberg, on the occasion of his 60th birthday. Jay made key contributions to a number of areas in nonlinear physics, condensed-matter physics and complex-systems physics, influencing fields such as solid mechanics, fluid mechanics, materials science and geophysics. Central to his work are spatiotemporal symmetry-breaking instabilities, which will be the main focus of the conference.
Symmetry-breaking instabilities in nonlinear spatially-extended systems play an essential role in shaping the world around us and have enormous influence on a broad range of scientific disciplines. They explain how smooth and symmetric initial physical states can account for the plethora of nontrivial patterns and highly inhomogeneous spatiotemporal dynamics observed in many physical systems. Over the last few decades various theoretical and experimental tools and techniques have been developed to study instabilities in nonlinear spatially-extended systems, with far reaching implications for many important problems in diverse fields; these include condensed-matter physics, statistical and nonlinear physics, fluid mechanics, solid mechanics, oceanography, atmospheric sciences, biophysics, geophysics and materials science. The workshop will be focused on the emerging broad perspective on symmetry-breaking instabilities in nonlinear spatially-extended systems. It will bring together world leaders and young researchers from various disciplines that will provide a broad overview of the field, report on cutting-edge developments and trigger vibrant cross-disciplinary discussions.
