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Our theoretical physics group studies percolation transitions, rigidity transitions,
shape instabilities/transitions, and emergent learning in living and nonliving matter.
Living matter is another term for biological matter, in vivo or in
vitro, while nonliving matter is the more conventional dead stuff
that physicists typically study, such as disordered metals, granular
materials, and gels. So while our work involves modelling seemingly
rather different systems, they are all quantifiable (at some level)
as resistor networks, interacting particle models, fiber
networks, and even vertex models, allowing for similar types of
analyses. More specifically, we aim to answer such questions as:
What is the nature of the rigidity/jamming transition in a packing
of frictional granular particles?
A brief October 2023 update: From 2021 until now, the Schwarz
Group (SG) has working with an increasing number of fabulous
experimentalists, such as Alison E. Patteson, Jennifer L. Ross,
Madeline A. Lancaster, and Andrew D. Stephens, as well as fantastic
theorists, such as Christian
D. Santangelo, Tao, Zhang, Benjamin Scellier, and Edward Banigan. Additional
new collaborations are in the works. We are making some headway in
the realm of minimal, multiscale computational modeling approaches to
the morphology and rheology of organoids/spheroids. Please note that the juxtaposition of "minimal" with "multiscale" may appear contradictory; however, I assure you it is not. We are also making some
progress in the emergent field of physical learning in which the material
is the brain!
A brief January 2021 update: 2020 was an intense year to say the least! The Schwarz Group (SG) went
from being funded by 1.5 grants (PI on one grant and co-PI on another) to being funded by 3.5
grants. In terms of the biology, we are now funded to study the
physics of cancer, how to make a brain organoid computer, and how
cells uptake the SARS2 virus. The brain organoid grant is actually an
Isaac Newton Award for Transformative Ideas during the COVID-19
Pandemic from the Department of Defense! However, it has been the SARS2 work that has
probably kept me (J. M. Schwarz) the most sane throughout 2020 by channeling at
least some of the SG brain power towards figuring out more things
about this nasty little bugger. My work with our department's new
Equity, Inclusion, and Diversity Committee also helped keep my
sanity. Our collaborations with superb
experimentalists continue and, as promised, the SG formally broadened our modeling reach at
both the tissue and cell scale to now include the chromatin
scale. See our recent Output listings for more details.
And please stay safe as we head further into 2021.
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