Robert P Behringer, J. B. Duke Professor (secondary appts: Computer Science, Mechanical Engineering & Material Sciences) of Physics

Office Location:  049 Physics
Office Phone:  (919) 660-2550, (919) 660-2553
Email Address: send me a message
Web Page:  http://www.phy.duke.edu/~bob

Teaching (Fall 2012):

Specialties:

Experimental condensed matter physics
Nonlinear dynamics and complex systems
Research Interests: Condensed Matter

Professor Robert P. Behringer is a James B. Duke Professor of Physics. Dr. Behringer's research interests include nonlinear dynamics and low-temperature physics. His studies of nonlinear dynamics include experiments on granular flow, on convection in liquid helium, as well as room temperature fluids, and on convection in porous media. His group has recently pioneered the use of magnetic resonance imaging and novel optical techniques to study flows in porous media. Novel experiments on the flow of granular materials such as sand have yielded new insights into the dynamics of this complex, technically important and intriguing system. Other experiments probe pattern formation phenomena in shear flows and in film flows. Experiments in low-temperature physics probe the unusual and striking properties of superfluid helium.

Current Ph.D. Students  

  • Eric Sia  
  • Abe Clark  
  • Jie Ren  
  • Junyao Tang  
  • Somayeh Farhadi  
  • Peidong Yu  
Postdocs Mentored

  • Joshua Dijksman (March 01, 2010 - present)  
  • Jie Zhang (2005 - present)  
  • Matthias Sperl (August, 2004 - November 28, 2006)  
  • Jean-Philippe Matas (2003/12-present)  
  • Brian Utter (2002/12-present)  
  • Karen Daniels (2002/12-present)  
  • Jeanman Sur (2002/12-present)  
  • Scott Paulson (2002/12-present)  
Recent Publications

  1. J. Krim, Peidong Yu and R.P. Behringer, Stick-Slip and the Transition to Steady Sliding in a 2D Granular Medium and a Fixed Particle Lattice, Pure and Appl. Geophys., vol. 168 (2011), pp. 2295-2275
  2. J. Zhang, R. P. Behringer and A. Oron, Novel pattern forming states for Marangoni convection in volatile binary liquids, Phys. Fluids, vol. 23 (2011), pp. 072102
  3. J. Tang and R.P. Behringer, How Granular Materials Jam in a Hopper, Chaos (Accepted, 2011)  [author's comments]
  4. J. Ren, J. Dijksman and R.P. Behringer, Linear Shear in a Model Granular System, Chaos (Accepted, 2011)  [abs]
  5. Dapeng Bi, Jie Zhang, Bulbul Chakraborty and R.P. Behringer, Jamming by Shear, Nature, vol. 480 (2011), pp. 355-358