By showing that tiny particles injected into a liquid
crystal medium adhere to existing mathematical theorems, physicists at the
University of Colorado Boulder have opened the door for the creation of a host
of new materials with properties that do not exist in nature.
The findings show that researchers can create a "recipe
book" to build new materials of sorts using topology, a major mathematical
field that describes the properties that do not change when an object is
stretched, bent or otherwise “continuously deformed.” Published online Dec. 23
in the journal Nature, the study also is the first to experimentally show that
some of the most important topological theorems hold up in the real material
world, said CU-Boulder physics department Assistant Professor Ivan Smalyukh, a
study senior author.