FIS3 Consolidator Grant SEASTAR "SElf-ASsembled paTterns: Analysis and Regularity" (financed by MUR, the Italian Ministry of University and Research). PI: Sara Daneri. Duration of the project: 5 years from summer 2026.

Themes of the project: The spontaneous emergence of patterns (self-assembly) is a fascinating phenomenon observed at mesoscopic scale in diverse physical, chemical and biological systemsUnderstanding the formation of such structures, originated by the competition between short-range attractive and long-range repulsive forces, is of tremendous importance both from the applied and the theoretical point of view. However, despite the important achievements made by the mathematical community in the last decades, the mechanisms giving rise to such periodically repeated geometric shapes are still poorly understood in most physical settings. SEASTAR aims at gaining deep insight into the emergence of different patterns observed in nature (such as stripes, columns, checkerboards or droplets), all sharing the following universal features: symmetry breaking; regular geometric shapes; periodicity. The goal is to go beyond the perturbative approach of the classical quantitative/functional inequalities by developing new geometric/functional inequalities which will be fruitful also in other geometric and analytical settings. The project lies at the crossroads of different research areas: calculus of variations, geometric measure theory, geometric analysis and mathematical physics.

A call for two postdoc positions is now open (deadline May 21st) and available [here (https://applications.gssi.it/)]