Published in Small

Research into the spatio-temporal visualization of phase transitions in a soft material using early warning indicators by Takayuki Matsui et al., was published in Small.

Early warning signals (EWSs) that pre-detect critical transitions have been intensively studied across diverse fields such as ecology and biology. In materials science, critical transitions manifest as phase transitions. This research demonstrates that generic statistical variables for evaluating critical transitions can be a powerful tool to visualize phase transitions in optically isotropic soft materials that are featureless under ambient conditions. Focusing on skewness, which inverts its sign after transition, this approach rendered skewness signals as 2D contours. Because this method is based on a fundamental physics model, it is potentially applicable to a wider field of complex systems with critical spatio-temporal transitions, such as traffic flows, climate change, and the spread of viruses in a pandemic.

Title: Visualizing Invisible Phase Transitions in Blue Phase Liquid Crystals Using Early Warning Indicators
Authors:Matsui, T., Matsumori, T., Ito, Y., Hase, Y., Yoshida, H.
Journal Name: Small
Published: 19 May 2022
https://doi.org/10.1002/smll.202200113