Report on the Program “Fluid-mediated particle transport in geophysical flows” at the Kavli Institute for Theoretical Physics, UC Santa Barbara, September 23 to December 12, 2013

This chapter gives an overview of Anderson’s life at the top of the theoretical condensed matter world. He became very influential at Bell Labs and retired as a Consulting Director of the Physical Science Laboratory. He moved his half-time professorship from Cambridge to Princeton in 1975, but it took a decade to break down the resistance there to condensed matter physics. He was heavily involved with the Aspen Center and turned down an offer of the Directorship of the Institute for Theoretical Physics in Santa Barbara. He wrote the magisterial “Basic Notions of Condensed Matter Physics” but was widely regarded as a poor classroom instructor. His Nobel Prize gave him a platform to oppose the ABM and Star Wars ballistic missile systems, and the Superconducting Super Collider.

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Walter Kohn. 9 March 1923—19 April 2016

Biographical Memoirs of Fellows of the Royal Society ◽

10.1098/rsbm.2017.0040 ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 64 ◽

pp. 249-259

Author(s):

Pierre C. Hohenberg ◽

James S. Langer

Keyword(s):

World War Ii ◽

Density Functional ◽

Clean Energy ◽

Public Affairs ◽

Theoretical Physics ◽

Institution Building ◽

Santa Barbara ◽

University Of Toronto ◽

Scientific Principles ◽

The University

Walter Kohn, a giant of theoretical physics, died at his home in Santa Barbara, California, on 19 April 2016, at the age of 93. Walter's life epitomized both the hardships and the wondrous achievements of physicists in the twentieth century. He escaped from Nazi-occupied Austria on one of the last children's rescue trains (the Kindertransport ) and during World War II spent 18 months confined in internment camps in England and Canada. He learned only after the War that both of his parents had perished in Auschwitz. After earning physics degrees at the University of Toronto and at Harvard University, he rapidly emerged as a leader in bringing quantum theory to bear on problems in the electron theory of solids. Walter's devotion to basic scientific principles led to the density functional theory of electrons in solids and in chemical molecules in the 1960s. Thirty years later, once the vast importance of this theory had become clear, he was awarded a Nobel Prize in Chemistry for this discovery. In his later years Walter turned much of his attention to institution building and public affairs. He was the founding director of the Institute for Theoretical Physics at the University of California, Santa Barbara. He was deeply committed to the control of nuclear weapons, the development of renewable clean energy and the free exchange of knowledge among scientists throughout the world.

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Summary of the Institute of Theoretical Physics (ITP) program on helioseismology (Santa Barbara, January–June 1990)

Advances in Space Research ◽

10.1016/0273-1177(91)90434-l ◽

1991 ◽

Vol 11 (4) ◽

pp. 15

Author(s):

Werner Däppen ◽

Ed Rhodes

Keyword(s):

Theoretical Physics ◽

Santa Barbara

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Gross, Prof. David Jonathan, (born 19 Feb. 1941), Chancellor’s Chair Professor of Theoretical Physics, Kavli Institute for Theoretical Physics, University of California, Santa Barbara, since 2013 (Director, 1997–2012; Frederick W. Gluck Professor of Theoretical Physics, 2002–12)

10.1093/ww/9780199540884.013.244931 ◽

2007 ◽

Keyword(s):

University Of California ◽

Theoretical Physics ◽

Santa Barbara

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Jamming in Liquids and Granular Materials

MRS Proceedings ◽

10.1557/proc-627-bb1.1 ◽

2000 ◽

Vol 627 ◽

Author(s):

C. S. O'Hern ◽

S. A. Langer ◽

A. J. Liu ◽

S. R. Nagel

Keyword(s):

Yield Stress ◽

Amorphous State ◽

Colloidal Suspensions ◽

Amorphous Solid ◽

Confining Pressure ◽

Supercooled Liquid ◽

Theoretical Physics ◽

Constant Density ◽

Santa Barbara ◽

Pressure Flows

Many systems can develop a yield stress while in an amorphous state. For example, a supercooled liquid, when cooled sufficiently, forms a glass - an amorphous solid with a yield stress. Another common example is a granular material which will remain solid and not move even under the influence of moderate stresses. This accounts for why piles of grain or sand can exist with a non-zero slope even though gravity is acting to flatten out the upper surface. The solidity in that case is due to the system having become jammed. Similar jamming often inhibits flow out of a hopper or in conduits transporting material across a factory floor. Jamming is a ubiquitous phenomenon occurring in many different systems such as colloidal suspensions, foams and, of course, traffic. We tend to think of the jamming transition as being stress-induced. A “fluid” at constant density (or under a confining pressure) flows if the stress is above the yield stress but becomes stuck in an amorphous configuration if the stress is too low. The idea of temperature, per se, does not seem to be crucial to the transition. This makes it seems quite different from the formation of a glass out of a supercooled liquid by lowering the temperature. However, there are similarities between these two types of transitions, aside from the obvious fact that they both have to do with the complete arrest of dynamics and flow. An exploration of these similarities was the subject of a program at the Institute for Theoretical Physics in Santa Barbara held in the Autumn of 1997. A synopsis of this program was published that details some of the interesting ideas now current in that field.[1]

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