Patterns, Defects and Materials Instabilities

Understanding the origin of spatio-temporal order in open systems far from thermal equilibrium and the selection mechanisms of spatial struc­ tures and their symmetries is a major theme of present day research into the structures of continuous matter. The development of methods for pro­ ducing spatially ordered microstructures in solids by non-equilibrium methods opens the door to many technological applications. It is also be­ lieved that the key to laminar/turbulence transitions in fluids lies in the achievement of spatio-temporal order. Let us also emphasize the fact that the idea of self-organization in it­ self is at the origin of a reconceptualisation of science. Indeed, the appear­ ance of order which usually has been associated with equilibrium phase transitions appears to be characteristic of systems far from thermal equi­ librium. This phenomenon which was considered exceptional at first now the rule in driven systems. The chemical oscillations obtained appears to be in the Belousov-Zhabotinskii reaction were initially considered to be ther­ modynamically impossible and were rejected by a large number of chemists. Now these oscillations and related phenomena (waves, chaos, etc. ) are the subject of intensive research and new classes of chemical oscil­ lators have been recently discovered. Even living organisms have long been considered as the result of chance rather than necessity. Such points of view are now abandoned under the overwhelming influence of spatio-tem­ poral organization phenomena in various domains ranging from physics to biology via chemistry, nonlinear optics, and materials science .

Contenu

One-Dimensional Cellular Patterns.- Defects and Defect-Mediated Turbulence.- Phase Dynamics - The Concept and some Recent Developments.- Transient Pattern Dynamics: General Concepts and the Freedericksz Transition in Nematics.- Localized Structures in Reaction-Diffusion Systems.- Kinetic Models for Defect Populations in Driven Materials.- External Noise and Pattern Selection in Convectively Unstable Systems.- Secondary Instability of Traveling Inclined Rolls in Taylor-Dean System.- Experiments on the Formation of Stationary Spatial Structures on a Network of Coupled Oscillators.- Studies on Instabilities and Patterns in Evaporating Liquids at Reduced Pressure and/or Microwave Irradiation.- Directional Solidification: Theoretical Methods and Current Understanding.- New Instabilities in Directional Solidification of Succinonitrile.- Stationnary Cells in Directional Solidification.- Recent Progress in the Theory of the Growth of Needle Crystals.- Structural Invariants and the Description of the Local Structure of Condensed Matter.- Structural Aspects of Domain Patterns in Ceramics and Alloys.- Self-Organization in Far-from-Equilibrium Reactive Porous Media Subject to Reaction Front Fingering.- Nonlinearity and Selforganization in Plasticity and Fracture.- Plastic Instabilities and the Deformation of Metals.- Dislocation Patterns and Plastic Instabilities.- Numerical Simulation of Dislocation Patterns during Plastic Deformation.- Pattern Formation during CW Laser Melting of Silicon.- Irradiation-Induced Cavity Lattice Formation in Metals.- The Formation of Clusters of Cavities during Irradiation.- A Mesoscopic Theory of Irradiation-Induced Void-Lattice Formation.- Participants.