[This is the old program from SS 2007. The current program and contact information can be found here.]

04 May 2007, 16:00

Igor A. Goychuk (Lehrstuhl für Theoretische Physik I, Universität Augsburg)
Signaling with Poisson-like processes: Theory and applications [Abstract]

11 May 2007, 16:00

Michael Bestehorn (Lehrstuhl Theoretische Physik II, BTU Cottbus)
Pattern formation in fluid layers with a free upper surface
– The influence of evaporation – [Abstract]

25 May 2007, 16:00

Niels Wessel (Arbeitsgruppe Nichtlineare Dynamik, Universität Potsdam)
Methods of cardiovascular physics and their clinical applicability [Abstract]

08 June 2007, 16:00

Karin John (Laboratoire de Spectrométrie Physique UJF, Grenoble, France)
A nonlinear study of symmetry-breaking in actin gels – Implications for cellular motility [Abstract]

15 June 2007, 16:00

Vladimir Vanag (Brandeis University, Waltham, USA)
Localized patterns in the BZ-AOT system [Abstract]

22 June 2006, 16:00

Holger Stark (Institut für Theoretische Physik, Technische Universität Berlin)
Driven systems in non-equilibrium in soft matter and biology

Abstract:
I review three examples where we have studied systems in non-equilibrium in recent years. First, I explain how particles coupled by hydrodynamic interactions move in circles under the influence of a tilted saw-tooth potential. Our study highlights the non-linear nature of hydrodynamic interactions and illustrates their importance for the coupled motion of several entities in a viscous environment and in the regime of low Reynolds numbers. Secondly, I show that these hydrodynamic interactions can synchronize, e.g., the rotations of two helices driven by the same torque. This is important for the locomotion of certain bacteria that move forward by a bundle of rotating helical flagella. Thirdly, I consider the Brownian motion of colloids in a 2D quasicrystalline potential. Quasicrystals possess a long-range positional order that cannot be described by a single unit cell due to their non-crystallographic point-group symmetry. In addition to phonones, they have further hydrodynamic modes called phasons. I explain how a uniform phasonic drift can be used to keep the Brownian particle in stationary non-equilibrium.