Physics (Internal)

The Second Kind of Impossible

This event is part of the Physics Department Colloquia Series.

Quasicrystals are exotic forms of matter with symmetries that were once thought to be mathematically impossible for any kind of solid. The first known examples were synthesized in the laboratory over 35 years ago, but could Nature have beaten us to the punch? This talk will describe the decades-long search to answer this question, an improbable story with more twists and turns than you can count.