Philip Smith with Rolfe Petschek

Optimizing the Search for Order Parameters in Quasicrystals

This research seeks to apply existing phase transition theory to quasicrystals in order to develop a better understanding for their underlying physical theory. This will consist of running simulations of hard tetrahedral particles that tend to develop quasicrystalline order and optimizing software that analyzes these simulation results. This will be accomplished by developing Python scripts to run the simulations with the appropriate sets of parameters. rewriting previous analysis software in C, and optimizing the rewritten software to take advantage of the Fast Fourier Transform method. A successful physical theory for quasicrystals would be impactful in the fields material science and chemistry that study quasicrystals, their applications, and their properties extensively.