Physics Forum Schedule
2019 Spring Semester
This semester, Physics Forum will be held Fridays at 11:00am, in the Interaction Zone (Howey S105). The planned speakers will be updated below.
Knitting as an arts and craft form is timeless. Despite its ubiquity, a clear formal notion of what it means for a pattern to be knittable is unknown. Using ideas from the classical knot & link theory, we develop a topological model of two-periodic knitted patterns. Based on this model we characterize properties of knitted patterns using topological invariants. The algorithmic nature of knitting protocol induces an algebraic structure on the invariants. We use the induced algebra to identify and tabulate the set of all two-periodic knitted patterns composed of basic stitches, knit & purl.
A clinical study of tinnitus patients found promising results using a novel non-invasive therapy. We introduce a dynamical model to explore both the onset of tinnitus and the effects of coordinated reset therapy. Our model extends an existing theory of individual outer hair cell dynamics to include their mutual interaction, and considers how sustained activity can inhibit the natural recovery exhibited by normal (healthy) individuals. The model is investigated through numerical simulations and shows behavior broadly similar to that reported in the clinical study.
This talk will be focused on modelling compact binary systems to study their mergers. I will describe how tools of numerical relativity can be used to simulate these systems and some of the challenges in this field. This will be followed by some of the recent studies on binary black hole mergers.
2018 Fall Semester
This semester, Physics Forum will be held Thursdays at 2:30pm, in the Interaction Zone (Howey S105). The planned speakers will be updated below.
When an intense low-frequency laser pulse propagates through an atomic gas, the microscopic nonlinear interaction between the atoms and the laser field produces radiation at high harmonic frequencies of the incident light, possibly reaching thousands of times the incident frequency. Under the right conditions, the microscopic radiation emitted throughout the gas can coalesce into coherent, macroscopic pulses of high-frequency light which co-propagate with the incident pulse. In this Physics Forum, Simon presents a purely classical model he derived for this phenomenon using classical Hamiltonian theory. This model describes the mutual coupling between the laser and the atoms, and it complements quantum models by providing a phase-space view of the atomic electrons during the pulse propagation. By comparing the results of classical and quantum calculations, Simon shows how the classical model allows us to understand surprising features of the evolution of the quantum high harmonic spectrum during propagation.
Turbulence is one of the oldest unsolved problems of classical Physics.
In recent years, fluid turbulence has made great strides by using ideas from Dynamical Systems Theory, Periodic Orbit Theory, as well as direct numerical simulations; however, extending these results to
large physical scales has been very challenging.
Our attempt to circumvent this difficulty is to develop a theory that is truly spatiotemporal. We will accomplish this by finding, studying, and utilizing solutions to the spatiotemporal Kuramoto-Sivashinsky equation with doubly periodic boundary conditions. The Kuramoto-Sivashinsky equation is a good testing ground because it serves as a simpler, one-dimensional analog to to the Navier-Stokes equation. We believe that these doubly periodic solutions will serve as
the foundation for a spatiotemporal theory of turbulence on infinite spatiotemporal domains.
2018 Spring Semester
This semester, Physics Forum will be held Fridays at 2:30pm, in the Interaction Zone (Howey S105). The planned speakers will be updated below.
A clinical study of tinnitus patients found promising results using a novel non-invasive therapy. We introduce a dynamical model to explore both the onset of tinnitus and the effects of coordinated reset therapy. Our model extends an existing theory of individual outer hair cell dynamics to include their mutual interaction, and considers how sustained activity can inhibit the natural recovery exhibited by normal (healthy) individuals. The model is investigated through numerical simulations and shows behavior broadly similar to that reported in the clinical study.
The gait shared by all terrestrial elongate, limbless vertebrates such as snakes involves pushing travelling lateral body bends against terrain heterogeneity to overcome drag forces. Despite the variety of organisms which use this mode of locomotion little is known about the connection between waveform, terrain, and performance, nor how snakes coordinate the many degrees-of-freedom trunk to modulate this connection. Snake-like robots generally tightly control the joints, a strategy we might expect to find in the living animal given the presumed challenge of coordinating the large number of body segments. In contrast, feedforward gaits and passive dynamics are observed in running insects and leveraged in limbed robots to enhance robustness and reduce control requirements. To explore strategies for slithering in multi-component terrain, we studied the locomotion of the desert-dwelling Shovel-nosed snake Chionactis occipitalis. This snake moves quickly across granular matter (GM) substrates using a specialized periodic waveform. Using granular drag measurements to empirically measure the forces acting between the trunk and the GM we found that the waveform used by the animal confers the benefit of maximum speed given a constraint on maximum segment power output, making this shape a likely control target. To probe the control architecture of the animal, we challenged C. occipitalis to traverse a spatially-uniform substrate and pass through a single row of vertical, force-sensitive posts. When the kinematics from all trials were combined a collisional diffraction pattern emerged; the animals exited the array in preferred directions, either continuing straight along the original heading or re-oriented to ±30°. The re-orientation pattern was reproduced by a geometric model of serpentine locomotion which used feedforward control and body-buckling mimicking passive deformation. This study suggested that the animal targets a pattern of muscle activation which is known to result in peak performance on the substrate alone and local deformation by the surroundings passively solves the constraint on position imposed by rigid obstacles. This neuromechanical strategy was effective in that the snake was always successful in transiting the array often without a loss of speed. Such a scheme could be leveraged in simplifying sensing and control requirements for snake-like robots in similar terrains. Ongoing work includes determining the benefits and drawbacks of this scheme in other environments.
The first tangible steps towards quantum computation are happening now. Intel, Google, and IBM are racing to build larger arrays of qubits to create quantum circuits that outperform classical computers. However, the challenges are still immense. In particular, how can we correct the inevitable errors that qubits accumulate? In this talk, I will explain my recent work on Quantum Error Correction. In particular, I will review a new method for analyzing statistical data from quantum surface codes that promises to simplify the process of error correction.
2017 Fall Semester
Pulsars are highly magnetized, rapidly rotating neutron stars that radiate across the entire electromagnetic spectrum. Since the first pulsar detection in the late 1960s, these odd stars have been the subject of intense scientific study in order to better understand the structure of the magnetosphere and the specifics of the particle acceleration leading to the observed radiation. In this talk, I will start by covering the basic understanding of what pulsars are, followed by a synopsis of the headaches involved in detecting and timing pulsars via measurement of their periodic emission signature. Subsequently, I will discuss the (simple) methods used to deduce various pulsar properties, including density limits, rotational energies, surface magnetic field strength limits, and approximate ages. In the remainder of the talk, I will focus on the gamma-ray emission from pulsars, which was the subject of m
Strand displacement is a swapping reaction involving 3 nucleic acid strands where a single strand invades a duplex and removes a similar strand through a process called branch migration. This characteristic switching behavior has been widely adopted in nanotechnology to build DNA walkers, DNA sorting robots, and structures that self assemble. In biology, strands exchange in many fundamental reactions including homologous recombination (responsible for DNA repair and a source of genetic diversity) and the revolutionary gene editing tool, the CRISPR/Cas9 system. Despite its wide ranging importance, there have been few single molecule studies that seek to answer basic questions about the biophysics of strand displacement and branch migration. In this week’s physics forum, I will discuss my work to uncover the effect of base pair mismatches on strand displacement. Further, I will present the first direct measurement of branch migration first passage times as well as surprising sequence dependence. Also, I will show how these behaviors can be described by physically intuitive models. Finally, I will present plans for future study that will provide deep insight to the biophysics of branch migration.
Using Feshbach resonance to tune the scattering length, cold atom experiments today can access strongly interacting regimes where typical perturbative theories fail. However, since the scattering length becomes large compared to all of the microscopic length scales, we expect that the scattering length dominates the physics at wavelengths much longer than these length scales, irrespective of the microscopic details. Thus, we seek effective theories that replace the true microscopic interactions with analytically tractable alternatives and yet remain approximately valid for all wavelengths much larger than the range of the microscopic interactions. Typically, we first investigate few-body systems both analytically and numerically and determine the prevalence and character of their eigenstates near zero energy. Then, we identify aspects of the corresponding many-body system which inherit a structure similar to their few-body counterparts. Our goal is to develop both intuitive characterizations and quantitative relations for strongly interacting many-body systems.
In this talk, we discuss the study of Tunneling Magnetoresistance and spin transfer torque in single magnetic nanoparticles using electron tunneling at 6K and 30mK. In an unexplored size range, these particles, made from transition metal ferromagnets, contain approximately 100-1000 magnetic atoms. Due to the size, the magnetic properties of the nanoparticles are fundamentally different than the properties of the bulk. Analyzing current as a function of magnetic field, we observe an abundance of magnetic hysteresis in Co but not Ni at 6K. Analytical methodologies yield large errors because the energy levels are given by the difference between two much larger energies. By conducting tunneling spectroscopy of the energy levels, and measuring the magnetic properties of those levels as a function of the magnetic field, we can obtain information unavailable analytically. Using the Neél model of surface anisotropy and numerical methods, we find a strong correlation of measured Tunneling Magnetoresistance with calculated surface anisotropy of the magnetic nanoparticles.
Turbulence in fluid flows is omnipresent. It needs to be understood and (if possible) controlled, for example, to have a smooth flight or survive a heart attack. Humankind has been trying to understand it not for years or decades, but for centuries, to limited success. Nonetheless, scientists persistently try new methods until the science is understood. As a result of the tireless efforts of many genius minds of the 20th century, there has emerged a new direction that seems promising to understanding turbulence: viewing it using a dynamical systems perspective. This perspective is being tested, and is showing encouraging results in both numerics and experiments. The last decade in particular has seen a lot of progress in part due to advancements in computers, development of sophisticated algorithms, and carefully designed experiments. I will (try to) give a broad and brief view of this new approach, and the recent successes, failures and contributions from our group.
Fire ant aggregations are an inherently active system. Each ant has its own energy source and can convert this energy into motion. I work on exploring the effect this activity has on the mechanical properties of aggregations. We have found that the properties of ant aggregations change cyclically in time. These cycles are connected to the activity level of the aggregation. We monitor the mechanics by measuring the normal force, oscillatory rheology, and real space imaging. With these measurements we can connect activity level with normal force, spacial distribution, fluctuations in the aggregation, and viscous and elastic moduli.
2017 Spring Semester
The Schatz Physics Education Research group has, over the last few years, developed and implemented an inquiry-based introductory mechanics curriculum for use online and in on-campus “flipped” courses. The centerpiece of this curriculum—named “Your World is Your Lab” (YWYL)—is a set of structured laboratory activities designed to be conducted by students with their own equipment in their own homes, culminating with each student producing their own colloquium-style video lab report. These laboratories include not only real-world observations and computer modeling (building on our group’s previous work on computation in the classroom) but also include a calibrated peer-assessment system of these video lab reports, an altogether new feature for Georgia Tech physics courses. This talk will describe our laboratories, our peer assessment system, our motivations for designing each, and our analysis of the development of student behavior and attitudes regarding peer assessment and lab report production.
Hydrogels are soft materials that consist of a cross-linked polymer matrix capable of undergoing large volume changes via absorption of a solvent. As with binary mixtures, hydrogels can undergo a macroscopic phase separation transition to create a more swollen region and a less swollen one. We address this transition in the case of an initially swollen hydrogel, in a slender-rod geometry, possibly curved, which is heated to a temperature at which one would expect deswelling of the entire sample. However, the rapidity of the rise in temperature inhibits the system from expelling solvent through the rod’s surface, so that re-equilibration takes place at fixed solvent volume. Owing to this constraint and the system’s elasticity, the solvent-poor region fails to fully deswell, and the hydrogel partitions into an incompletely deswollen region and an excessively swollen one, determined by stress balance and a lever rule. Because the polymer network remains contiguous the rod undergoes a macroscopic shape change. When the partitioning is constant along the rod, the interface-orientation is a Goldstone mode that couples to the rod’s bending and twisting degrees of freedom and as a result, a large deflection of the rod occurs.
2016 Fall Semester
Limbless locomotors such as snakes move by pressing the trunk against terrain heterogeneities. Our laboratory studies of the desert-dwelling Mojave Shovel-nosed snake (C. occipitalis, ~40 cm long, N=9) reveal that these animals use a stereotyped sinusoidal traveling wave of curvature. However, this snake also encounters rigid obstacles in its natural environment, and the tradeoff between using a cyclic, shape controlled gait versus one which changes shape in response to the terrain is not well understood. We challenged individuals to move across a model deformable substrate (carpet) through a row of 6.4 mm diameter force-sensitive pegs—a model of terrain heterogeneities such as grass—oriented perpendicular to the direction of motion. Instead of forward-directed reaction forces, reaction forces generated by the obstacles were more often perpendicular to the direction of motion. Distributions of post-peg travel angles displayed preferred directions revealing a diffraction-like pattern with a central peak at zero and symmetric peaks at 19 +\- 3 degrees and 41 +/- 5 degrees. We observed similar dynamics in a robotic snake using shape-based control. This suggests that this sand-specialist snake adheres to its preferred waveform as opposed to changing the shape in response to the terrain.
Geometric phase in classical and quantum mechanical systems has its origin in the geometry of the path traversed by the system in the phase space or the Hilbert space. As a non-relativistic analogue of Wilson loop operators and as a key tool to explore the deep relationship between geometry and physics, geometric phase remains an active area of research.Here we formulate a non-abelian geometric phase for spin systems. When the spin vector of a quantum system is transported along a closed loop inside the solid spin sphere (i.e., the unit ball), the tensor of second moments picks up a geometric phase in the form of an SO(3) operator. Considering spin-1 quantum systems, we formulate this phase. Geometrically interpreting this holonomy is tantamount to defining a steradian angle for loops inside a unit ball, including the ones that pass through the center. We accomplish this by projecting the loop onto the real projective plane. We show that the SO(3) holonomy of a loop inside the unit ball is equal to the steradian angle of the projected path in the real projective plane. This can be generalized to any spin system.
Abstract omitted upon request of the speaker.
In this talk, we discuss the study of Tunneling Magnetoresistance and spin transfer torque in single magnetic nanoparticles using electron tunneling at 6K and 30mK. In an unexplored size range, these particles, made from transition metal ferromagnets, contain approximately 100-1000 magnetic atoms. Due to the size, the magnetic properties of the nanoparticles are fundamentally different than the properties of the bulk. Analyzing current as a function of magnetic field, we observe an abundance of magnetic hysteresis in Co but not Ni at 6K. Analytical methodologies yield large errors because the energy levels are given by the difference between two much larger energies. By conducting tunneling spectroscopy of the energy levels, and measuring the magnetic properties of those levels as a function of the magnetic field, we can obtain information unavailable analytically. Using the Neél model of surface anisotropy and numerical methods, we find a strong correlation of measured Tunneling Magnetoresistance with calculated surface anisotropy of the magnetic nanoparticles.
Thermonuclear, or Type Ia Supernovae, are white dwarf stars composed of carbon and oxygen which undergo explosive nuclear burning. The end products of this nuclear burning include radioactive nickel, which powers a highly luminous optical transient as bright as an entire galaxy for several weeks. Type Ia supernovae also play a crucial role in enriching a galaxy with intermediate mass elements such as silicon and calcium as well as heavier elements including nickel and iron. Since an isolated white dwarf is inherently stable, such an explosion requires the presence of a companion. However, while the nature of the white dwarf and its companion star, as well as the explosion mechanism itself have been active subjects of research for decades, until very recently there has been little concrete evidence directly connecting a given explosion to a specific stellar progenitor.
In 2015, astronomers found strong spectral signatures of stable iron-peak elements, including manganese, nickel, and chromium, in the interior of the supernova remnant 3C 397 using the X-ray telescope Suzaku. The nucleosynthesis of these elements require high density stellar environments, and consequently point towards a very specific white dwarf progenitor for 3C 397, namely one which is close to the Chandrasekhar mass. In my research, I have undertaken an investigation into this system using multidimensional numerical simulations, and have addressed some key questions about the progenitor white dwarf of the supernova which gave rise to 3C 397, as well as the nature of the explosion mechanism.
Fire ant aggregations are an inherently active system. Each ant has its own energy source and can convert this energy into motion. I work on exploring the effect this activity has on the mechanical properties of aggregations. We have found that the properties of ant aggregations change cyclically in time. These cycles are connected to the activity level of the aggregation. We monitor the mechanics by measuring the normal force, oscillatory rheology, and real space imaging. With these measurements we can connect activity level with normal force, spacial distribution, fluctuations in the aggregation, and viscous and elastic moduli.
2016 Spring Semester
This semester, Physics Forum will be held every other Thursday at 4pm, in the Interaction Zone (Howey S105). See below for the planned speakers.
During their evolution, relativistic stars may undergo oscillations which can become unstable under certain conditions. Scenarios that can lead to such oscillations include crust- or core-quakes and binary mergers. Also, relativistic stars are expected to intensely oscillate during their creation after a supernovae collapse or when they are members of binary systems, due to the tidal interaction or mass and angular momentum transfer from their companion star. The presence of rotation can strongly affect these oscillations. During these phases of their lives such compact objects emit large amounts of gravitational waves which along with viscosity tend to suppress these oscillations. Studying the characteristics of gravitational waves emitted by such compact objects can lead to conclusions about the various types of oscillations within the compact star and consequently to information about the stellar parameters of the source.
The main interest of this project is to use numerical relativistic hydrodynamic simulations to study the characteristics of rapidly rotating neutron stars as sources of gravitational waves. The final goal is to acquire theoretical information of such systems that can later be used as comparison to actual observations of gravitational waves.
Quantitative determination of the copy number of RNA transcripts in single cells is crucial to understand the genotype-phenotype connection. Current single-molecule Fluorescence In Situ Hybridization (FISH) protocols commonly used for this purpose require a large number of fluorophores per target RNA for single RNA detection, thus limiting the length range of RNA that can be probed. We have developed a FISH protocol for budding yeast, which can detect RNA molecules with a singly labeled 24-nucleotide DNA probe. Our single-probe protocol features highly inclined illumination and methanol fixation. We demonstrated high signal-to-noise and specificity of our protocol when tested against both constitutive and inducible genes in budding yeast. The technique presented offers a cost effective and efficient means of quantifying short RNA transcripts at the single cell level.
Standard methods of getting dilute atomic ensembles down to micro-kelvin temperatures involve cooling by laser-light. So-called sub-Doppler techniques are employed wildly in ultracold Atomic experiments as a precursor to the lossy evaporative cooling stage in order to minimise atomic loss. Many of these techniques have been well understood for a long time now, but the majority work poorly for Fermionic species of atoms. As many ultracold atomic experiments today are moving toward Fermionic systems, effective and powerful cooling techniques are a must. In this talk I will detail a discovery, some of the theory and a proposed ‘new’ sub-doppler laser cooling technique for fermionic Potassium (K40). (A SUPA research collaboration from the University of St. Andrews and Strathclyde, Scotland.)
Magnetic phenomena have been utilized by human beings for hundreds of years with tremendous success in advancing technologies, and in the realm of physics the deliberate manipulation of magnetic systems is widely utilized to probe for underlying physical properties or theoretical validations. The theory of magnetism itself, however, has been shown to have major limitations in describing bulk magnetic orderings. In particular, ferromagnetism is largely incompatible with band theory. Cluster physics investigates how the physical properties of an element (or molecule) change with size, from the atomic scale to clusters of hundreds or thousands of atoms. In this talk I will discuss magnetism in general, with focus on Fe, Co, and Ni in and between the atomic and bulk size regime. Recent experimental data will be presented that may have implications for the understanding of the atomic origins of bulk ferromagnetism.
| Abstract: The heart is an excitable system through which electrical waves of depolarization propagate in a coordinated manner to initiate mechanical contraction. A fundamental characteristic of cardiac cells is a shortening of the depolarization time, known as the action potential duration (APD), with increasing electrical stimulation rates. However, at high stimulation frequencies many cardiac cells exhibit alternans, a beat-to-beat alternation in APD between long and short pulses. Experiments and models strongly suggest that this desynchronized depolarization can lead to fibrillation and sudden cardiac death, taking the lives of over 350,000 Americans each year — half of all heart disease deaths in the US. Alternans has been proposed as the of the first period doubling bifurcation along a cascade under which the system enters a state of complex spatiotemporal dynamics: fibrillation, the manifestation of chaos in the heart. |
2015 Fall Semester
This semester, Physics Forum will be held every other Wednesday at 4pm, in the Interaction Zone (Howey S105). See below for the planned speakers.
The Laser Interferometer Gravitational Wave Observatory is very sensitive to coherent mechanical vibrations of the surface of the coatings on its cavity mirrors. These vibrations are related to the mechanical properties of thin films; in particular, the vibration amplitude depends on the Young’s modulus and Poisson’s ratio of the coatings. However, many of the materials that are being considered for the mirror coatings do not have well-known mechanical properties. These properties can be measured using a number of different techniques. Two methods were used: ultrasonic at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University and nanoindentation at California Institute of Technology. Results of these studies confirm that the Young’s modulus and Poisson’s ratio can be measured successfully. The methods developed can be used to compare multiple materials, leading to a final recommendation on coating material for the next production of mirrors.
Topology provides a useful tool for physical analysis. Despite its intimidating reputation, many basic principles are easy to understand. I will give a brief overview of topology in physics with application to condensed matter.
Fire ants, Solenopsis invicta, form aggregations that are able to drip and spread like simple liquids, but that can also store energy and maintain a shape like elastic solids. They are an active material where the constituent particles constantly transform chemical energy into work. We probe the material properties of ant aggregations using rheology. We find that fire ant aggregations shear thin when forced to flow. And below a threshold stress both flow with and resist the applied stress. Unusually, we find that when no force is applied ant aggregations will still rotate. All of our results for live ant aggregations are compared to those of dead ant aggregations to assure that we are seeing the effects of activity.
Scientists have long been able to measure the de Broglie wavelength of matter. To compare this property with that of antimatter, three gratings, assembled in such a way as to create a Moiré pattern, yields a more focused diffraction pattern than Young’s double slit, thus giving a more accurate measurement. The gratings are assembled into the ACE beam line, an adjunct to CERN’s AEgIS project. This one-meter pipe takes 200 nanosecond packets of 107 antiprotons at 5.3 MeV from the Antiproton Decelerator, cools them via foil degraders to the order of 1 keV, delivers them to the grating system, and then fires them into a nucleon-sensitive emulsion detector. By substituting foils of different atomic number for the gratings, fragmentation patterns created by antiproton-nucleus annihilations can be tailored in computer simulations by studying the same emulsion detectors. Rather than annihilating with a lithium nucleus, an antiproton can ionize the lithium, then orbit the nucleus in a Rydberg (high-n) state. Such a state would allow the newly created antiprotonic lithium to exist as a metastable atom with a lifetime of 106 seconds. Detailed analysis using the simulation program GEANT4 verifies that the signal (at a silicon pixel detector rather than emulsion) from this decay will not be convoluted with that of annihilations elsewhere in the chamber.
Observations of the Galactic Center (GC) have revealed that there is a relative paucity of Red Giant (RG) stars within the central parsec. However, these observations conflict with our current theoretical understanding. We would expect the GC to have formed a segregated cusp of late-type stars. A recent explanation for this theoretical issue is that the outer envelopes of RG stars may have been stripped due to collisions with a fragmenting accretion disk in the GC. Both numerical and analytic models of star-disk collisions have been considered by several authors prior to this work, but a majority of the literature has focused on either the envelope stripping of a Main-Sequence (MS) star or other phenomena associated with this particular interaction. Here we investigate the envelope stripping of a RG star of radius R* = 10 R⊙ and mass M* = 1 M⊙ colliding with the dense regions of a fragmenting disk. From our simulations, we are able to conclude that a RG star is likely to be stripped of its outer envelope and, occasionally, disrupted.
Characterization of nonclassicality or quantumness of a state is fundamental to foundations of quantum mechanics and quantum information. At the heart of the problem is the question whether there exist classical systems—howsoever complicated—that can mimic a given quantum state. Whilst this has been traditionally addressed through the violation of Bell inequality or nonseparability, we show that it is possible to go beyond them, by introducing the concept of classical simulation. Focusing on the two-qubit case, we show that, while for pure states, classical simulability is equivalent to existence of a local hidden variable (LHV) model, the conditions for simulability can be weaker for mixed states, demanding what we call only a generalized LHV description. Consequently, quantum states which defy a classical simulation—which we call exceptional—may require conditions which are more stringent than violation of Bell inequalities. We illustrate these features with a number of representative examples and discuss the underlying reasons, by employing fairly simple arguments.
Almost every fluid flow that you experience in your life will be a turbulent one. From blood flowing through your heart to air rushing over an airplane wing to the snow storm that shut Atlanta down for almost a week two years ago – all turbulent. Despite the 500 years that man has been studying this ubiquitous phenomenon, it is still considered “the most important unsolved problem in classical physics” (quote attributed to Feynman). Here at Tech, you walk among some of the pioneers of an entirely new way of approaching turbulence. Using recently developed tools from chaos theory and nonlinear dynamics, we are developing a fundamentally deterministic model of turbulence that, if valid, will both offer predictive power as well as an easier way of controlling turbulent flows. In this discussion, I will briefly summarize the problem with turbulent modeling as it stands now, describe the theory behind our approach, and present some promising preliminary results.