Charbonneau Research Group
Research Interests
The Charbonneau group uses theoretical and computational tools to investigate the assembly of soft matter systems, such as glasses, microphase formers, and proteins.
• Microphase Formation
The self-assembly of nanoscale components is one of the most promising routes for designing ever smaller and more complex devices, such as organic photovoltaics and memory circuits. Microphase formers exhibit an exotic array of structures on the nanoscale, and these systems' relative simplicity makes them plausible experimental targets. Yet existing thermodynamic and kinetic descriptions provide insufficient guidance. Our novel simulation methodologies for correctly treating lattices with fluctuating site occupancy allow us to obtain the equilibrium phase behavior of arbitrary microphase formers and related systems. Even the most basic of these models exhibit a surprisingly rich and novel phenomenology, such as softening due to clustering and reentrant transitions.
[1] B. M. Mladek, P. Charbonneau, and D. Frenkel, Phys. Rev. Lett. 99, 235702 (2007).
[2] K. Zhang and P. Charbonneau, Phys. Rev. Lett. 104, 195703 (2010).
[3] K. Zhang and P. Charbonneau, Phys. Rev. B 83, 214303 (2011).
[4] K. Zhang, P. Charbonneau, and B. M. Mladek, Phys. Rev. Lett. 105, 245701 (2010).
• Glass Transition, Jamming, and Crystalization
Explaining how a liquid turns into a glassy solid is one of the most fascinating and controversial problems in the theory of matter. Our group has taken the novel approach of changing the dimensionality of space to explore this question. We have shown that the liquid structure is important in preventing crystallization, but that simple geometrical frustration does not cause the dynamical slowdown, as had been previously claimed. We have also made remarkable progress in describing the mean-field behavior of glasses. More specifically we have found that one of the key assumptions made in many glass theories, that self-caging takes a Gaussian shape, is actually incorrect. Our parallel study of deeply quenched glasses further offered a first unifying microscopic description of jamming. As a result, the path to an all-encompassing mean-field theory of glasses appears clearer than ever.
[1] P. Charbonneau, A. Ikeda, G. Parisi, and F. Zamponi, Phys. Rev. Lett. 107, 185702 (2011).
[2] P. Charbonneau, A. Ikeda, G. Parisi, and F. Zamponi, PNAS 109, 13939 (2012).
[3] P. Charbonneau, E. Corwin, G. Parisi, and F. Zamponi, Phys. Rev. Lett. in press (2012).
[4] B. Charbonneau, P. Charbonneau, and G. Tarjus, Phys. Rev. Lett. 108, 035701 (2012).
• Protein-Protein Interactions and Protein Crystallization
Although designing better medicines largely rests on determining the target proteins' structure from crystallography, there is no systematic way of obtaining protein crystals in the first place. To address this problem, we have developed a hybrid approach between soft matter and structural biology whereby chemical specificity is included in schematic protein models. By revealing the role of anisotropic interactions in driving crystallization, we have unified insights obtained from the two seemingly incompatible epistemologies. Our rationalization of the experimental behavior of a protein family allows us to make verifiable predictions about optimal preparation conditions, and to constructively revisit the physical and biological descriptions.
[1] D. Fusco, J. Headd, J. J. Headd, A. de Simone, P. Charbonneau, arXiv:1206.6332 (2012).