Kavli Institute for Theoretical Physics

The Exploration Conference 'Interfaces and Mixing in Fluids, Plasmas, Materials'  is invited by the Kavli Institute for Theoretical Physics.

The Conference is in hybrid format, including in-person and virtual presentations.

Interfaces and interfacial mixing and their non-equilibrium dynamics and kinetics govern a broad range of processes in nature and technology. These are the processes in fluids, plasmas and materials, in turbulent and in coherent states, from celestial to atomic events, under conditions of high and low energy density. Examples include supernovae and fusion, planetary convection and solar flares, fluid instabilities and turbulent mixing, reconnection events in quantum fluids and in conducting plasmas, materials processing and electro-catalysis, purification of water and nano-fabrication. In these realistic environments, flow fields change sharply and rapidly, accelerations are strong, energy releases are high, relaxations are weak, and phases of matter are well pronounced.

Interfaces and interfacial mixing couple micro- to macro scales, and are challenging to study in theory, experiments and simulations, in both kinetic and in continuous limits.

Interfaces are phase boundaries broadly defined. These can be interfaces between two distinct matters or between the same matters with distinct thermodynamics and electro-dynamic properties. The matter (fluid, plasma, material) can experience a phase transition, be out of thermodynamic equilibrium, and undergo a change in chemical composition. Phase boundaries can be microscopically vanishing and yet can possess observable macroscopic interfacial fluxes (of, e.g., mass, heat, electric charge). They can form when two matters meet, and when one matter gains non-uniform structures. At interfaces, properties of matter experience dramatic changes at minuscule scales, and microscopic interfacial transports define the macroscopic fields in the bulk. In all these circumstances, the interface is a place where balances are achieved; as such, the interface dynamics is eligible to first principle theoretical considerations.

At the Conference, we intend to explore group theory based and other methodologies for solving interface dynamics and conservation laws far from equilibrium. Groups and representations are powerful methods defining how symmetry of a system influences solutions of equations governing that system. In synergy with experiments and simulations, we aim to associate attributes of analytical and numerical solutions with physical observables at continuous and molecular scales. Through guidance from the observations, we target to approach non-equilibrium dynamics and kinetics of interfaces and mixing at the level of detail and abstraction not achieved before and to capture their fundamentals in the vastly distinct physical regimes. We examine, e.g., whether in fluids unstable interfaces can lead to turbulence and its anomalous scaling, whether in plasmas the interface topology and transports are tightly linked to volumetric fields, whether in multi-phase materials the energy can scatter beyond conventional diffusion and/or be trapped at atomic scales.

The Exploration Conference 'Interfaces and Mixing' provides the opportunity to bring together researchers from various areas of science, mathematics and engineering, including theoretical physics, applied mathematics, fluid dynamics, plasma physics, astrophysics, and materials science, and to have their attention focused on the long-standing formidable task of non-equilibrium dynamics and kinetics of interfaces and mixing.

The Exploration Conference 'Interfaces and Mixing' fully leverages the enduring capabilities of the Program 'Turbulent Mixing and Beyond."

The goals of the Program 'Turbulent Mixing and Beyond' are to expose the generic problem of non-equilibrium processes to a wide scientific community, to promote the development of new ideas in tackling fundamental aspects of the problem, to assist in application of novel approaches in a broad range of phenomena, where these processes occur, and to have an impact on technology.

The Program 'Turbulent Mixing and Beyond' was founded in 2007 with the support of international scientific community and  of international funding agencies and institutions.  The TMB relevant Conferences and Symposia were organized in 2007, 2009, 2011, 2013, 2014, 2017, 2019 and 2022. To date, the TMB community unites thousands researchers worldwide, including scientists from academia, national laboratories, and corporations.

We hope that the Exploration Conference 'Interfaces and Mixing' will serve to advance knowledge of fundamental aspects of non-equilibrium dynamics and kinetics of interfaces and interfacial mixing, and to progress their  predictive modeling capabilities, physical description and, ultimately, control.