Statistical physics of disordered matter

« Physical properties of dense liquids and disordered solids : from atoms to pedestrians »

Organizers: Benjamin Guiselin (LPENSL, Lyon), Nina Javerzat (LiPhy, Grenoble), Juliane
Klamser (L2C, Montpellier), Hendrik Meyer (ICS, Strasbourg), Camille Scalliet (LPENS,
Paris, ).

Format: This mini-colloquium complements the plenary talks from A. Tanguy and L.
Berthier. For this reason, there will be no invited speaker, and all talks will be
contributed, of a duration dictated by the number of submissions.
The ubiquity of disordered matter contrasts with the conceptual and
fundamental challenges to rationalise how their physical properties emerge from
disorder at the microscopic scale. Understanding the mechanisms responsible for the
slow dynamics of dense liquids or the physical properties of disordered solids is an
important goal. This endeavour has a long history for thermal solids composed of atoms,
molecules, polymers and colloids. There has been much progress on their static
properties, and more work is still needed to rationalise their bulk and confined
dynamics. Interestingly, very recent studies have broadened the scope of the field by
focusing on disordered liquids and solids made of active entities, from motile colloidal
particles up to human scales, in which rich collective dynamical behaviour emerges.

The goal of this mini-colloquium is to discuss recent advances in the statistical
physics of disordered matter, aiming at understanding the physical properties of dense
liquids and disordered solids (dynamics, transport, mechanical and rheological, etc.).
The mini-colloquium will gather researchers working on a variety of systems, from
thermal to driven and active, in the bulk or under confinement, via experiments,
computer simulations and analytical approaches. The goal is to offer an opportunity to
present exciting recent results in the field. Contributions from students, postdocs, early
career and more senior researchers are all welcome.

From left to right: chaotic dynamics in a dense active liquid (Y.E. Keta et al., PRL 132 21
2024); dynamic heterogeneities in a deeply supercooled liquid (B. Guiselin et al., Nature
Physics 18 2022), yielding of stable disordered solid (M. Ozawa et al., PNAS 115 6656
2018).