Sep 20 – 25, 2026
University of Graz
Europe/Vienna timezone

The Hidden Geometry of Transport in Disordered Matter

Sep 24, 2026, 4:45 PM
15m
HS 15.04 (University of Graz)

HS 15.04

University of Graz

15 - RESOWI E, ground floor
3) Contributed talk M13 - Localization Dynamics in Matter and Waves Mini-Colloquium

Speaker

Yann Chalopin

Description

Abstract — 140 words

Transport in disordered media is usually described through spectra, eigenmodes, and localization lengths. Yet finite systems are probed point to point: a source excites a specific realization at a specific frequency, and transmission follows sparse, heterogeneous corridors. We show that the resolvent response defines a source-conditioned communication geometry directly on the medium. Its logarithm acts as a transport potential whose basins, ridges, and saddles organize propagation. Within this geometry, attenuation is controlled not by the cumulative cost along a path, but by the minimax saddle: the lowest pass at which source and target first become dynamically connected. This yields a finite-scale constitutive closure for transmission, with subleading corridor and entropic corrections. Tests on disordered graphene and protein elastic networks show that the saddle systematically outperforms path-based predictors, revealing transport as a threshold-controlled, geometric process in finite disordered matter.

Author

Yann Chalopin

Presentation materials

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