Why certain symmetries are never observed in nature
Wednesday, March 31, 2010 - 14:28
in Physics & Chemistry
Ordered materials with 7-fold, 9-fold or 11-fold symmetries are never observed in nature. Researchers discovered the reason for this when they tried to impose a 7-fold symmetry on a layer of charged colloidal particles using strong laser fields: the emergence of ordered structures requires the presence of specific sites where the corresponding order nucleates.
