Minisymposia

Percolation and related phenomena in porous media
Metallic photonic crystals and left handed materials
Mathematical methods applicable to heterogeneous media
Conducting polymers and random lasing
Magnetic systems
Percolation and critical behavior

Percolation and related phenomena in porous media

organized by Robert Ewing

Percolation theory was recognized from its inception as a conceptual model with application to fluid movement in porous media. But while it clearly has much to contribute to our understanding of porous media, it is currently more a curiosity than a tool in the hydrogeological and geophysical mainstream. This mini-symposium will bring together researchers in porous media and percolation theory to examine the connections between the two. What are the applications of percolation theory to porous media? What are the inherent limitations of applying the mathematical theory to physical objects, and what adaptations must be made? Are there related models and/or concepts that can be wedded to percolation theory to broaden its applicability? What critical issues in porous media are currently begging for a solution that percolation theory could provide?

This minisymposium, will be held Monday afternoon of the conference will include the following talks (please click on the titles to see the abstracts):


    R. Ewing (Iowa State Univ.)
         Correlation structure effects on edge-accessible porosity and chemical distance near the percolation threshold

    K. Golden (Univ. of Utah)
         Percolation in sea ice

    P. King (Imperial College, U.K.)
         Predicting oil recovery using percolation theory

    G. Margolin (Weizmann Institute, Israel)
         Generalized conductivity scaling and transport in random networks

    T. Skaggs (U.S. Salinity Laboratory)
         Fluid permeability and DC conductivity of networks with a broad distribution of bond resistances: comparison of the critical path approximation with 3-D Monte Carlo simulations

    M. Sukop (Utah State Univ.)
         Single component, multiphase lattice Boltzmann models (LBM) in invasion percolation

To the top


Metallic photonic crystals and left handed materials

organized by Steven Blair

This minisymposium, to be held Monday afternoon of the conference, will include the following talks (please click on the titles to see the abstracts):


    A.L. Efros (Univ. of Utah)
         Diffraction in left-handed materials and theory of Veselago lens

    V.F. Kozhevnikov (Univ. of Utah)
         Physical properties of gallium infiltrated into opal photonic crystals

    H.-Y. Park (Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology)
         Improved transmittance in one-dimensional metallic photonic crystals

    S.-Y. Park (Ohio State Univ)
         Theory of the optical properties of DNA-modified gold nanoparticle composites

    A. Pletzer (Princeton Plasma Physics Lab.)
         Stimulating photons and plasmons in a three dimensional metallic lattice

    A.K. Sarychev (Purdue Univ.)
         Plasmons in nano-wires and left-handed plasmonic materials

    G. Shvets (Princeton Plasma Physics Lab.)
         Novel left-handed material based on a network of plasma channels

    D.R. Smith (U.C. San Diego)
         Negative refractive composite media

To the top


Mathematical methods applicable to heterogeneous media

organized by Niklas Wellander

The topics to be covered in this minisymposium are planned to give a sample of some of the existing mathematical tools available to model heterogeneous electromagnetic and magnetic problems such as, but not limited to, the following: homogenization of linear and non-linear Maxwell's equations; bounds on the effective properties; and localization effects in periodic and non-periodic structures.

This minisymposium, to be held Tuesday afternoon of the conference, will include the following talks (please click on the titles to see the abstracts):


    R. Alexandre (Univ. d'Orleans, France)
         Some tools from homogenization and applications in electromagnetism

   A. Babin (UC Irvine)
         Nonlinear interactions of wavepackets in a periodic media

    C.J. Garcia-Cervera (UC Santa Barbara)
         New advances in numerical micromagnetics simulations

    S. Guenneau (Univ. Liverpool, United Kingdom)
         Properties of conically propagating electromagnetic and elastodynamic waves in periodic media

    J. Picka (Univ. Maryland)
         Estimating conductance in small samples of heterogeneous materials by random walks

    A. Pokrovski (Univ. Utah)
         Electrodynamics of metallic photonic crystals and problem of left-handed materials

    N. Wellander (UC Santa Barbara)
         Homogenization of Maxwell's equations


To the top


Conducting polymers and random lasing

organized by Valy Vardeny

Two topics will be covered in this minisymposium. One is 'random lasers' in which there will be four talks; two talks on experimental works and the other two talks on theoretical issues. The novel and fascinating properties of random lasers are still a mystery, and these talks will give a sample of the many facets associated with this type of laser action. The other topic is 'conducting polymers' in which there will be also four talks, all on experimental works. One talk describes the electrical properties of doped polymers, the other three talks deal with optical properties of several conducting polymer films, including femtosecond transient, cw photomodulation, and spin dependent photomodulation. These talks will give a sample on the many properties of conducting polymers, the novel materials that were the subject of the 2000 Nobel Prize in Chemistry.

This minisymposium, to be held Tuesday afternoon of the conference, will include the following talks (please click on the titles to see the abstracts):


    V. M. Apalkov (Univ. of Utah)
         Random lasing and random resonators in disordered dielectric films

    A. L. Burin (Northwestern Univ.)
         Understanding and control of random lasing

    X. M. Jiang (Univ. of Utah)
         Morphology-dependent optical properties of substituted poly(p-phenylene-ethynylene)

    O. J. Korovyanko (Univ. of Utah)
         Photoexcitations in trans-polyacetylenes: Long-living story about short-living species

    R. Polson (Univ. of Utah)
         Random lasing in Pi-conjugated polymer films

    A. E. Semenov (Rutgers Univ.)
         Electrical transport in 2-Naphthylacetylene anode of Li+ ion battery in strong inhomogeneous electric field by UHV STM/AFM

    D. S. Wiersma (European Lab. for Non-linear Spectroscopy and INFM, Italy)
         Liquid crystal infiltrated random media: From the optical NTC-resistor to temperature tunable random lasers

    M. Wohlgenannt (Univ. of Utah)
         Measurements of spin-dependent exciton formation cross-sections in pi-conjugated oligomers and polymers


To the top


Magnetic systems

This minisymposium, to be held Thursday afternoon of the conference, will include the following talks (please click on the titles to see the abstracts):


    G.H. Demirjian (Gyumri State Pedagogical Inst., Armenia)
         The peculiarities of hydrogen-type systems in thin semiconductor films (QWS) in the presence of a transverse magnetic field

    J.S. Miller (Univ. of Utah)
         Spin glass behavior in metalloporphyrin-based magnets

    X.-Z. Wang (Harbin Normal Univ., China)
         Nonlinear polaritons of antiferromagnetic superlattices

    W. Wen (HKUST, China)
         Two and three dimensional ordered structures in electro-magneto-rheological fluids


To the top


Percolation and critical behavior

This minisymposium, to be held Thursday afternoon of the conference, will include the following talks (please click on the titles to see the abstracts):


    K.K. Bardhan (Saha Inst. Nuclear Physics, India)
         Critical behaviour of thermal relaxation in composites

    F. Carmona (Centre de Recherche Paul Pascal, France)
         To what extent is the structure of a random composite compatible with a percolation model?

    A.N. Lagarkov (Inst. for Theoretical and Applied Electromagnetism, Russia)
         Influence of concentration fluctuation on mv properties of composites

    D.S. McLachlan (Univ. of the Witwatersrand, South Africa)
         The correct modeling of the second order terms of the complex ac conductivity results for continuum percolation media, using a single phenomenological equation


To the top