The PhD defence and trial lecture will be streamed. The chair of the defence will moderate the disputation.
Ex auditorio questions: the chair of the defence will invite the audience physically present in the auditorium to ask ex auditorio questions.
→ Live streaming of trial lecture and disputation (link will be available)
→ Request for thesis copy (available until the disputation starts)
Trial lecture
Time and place: September 26, 2025; 10:15 AM, -
Lille Fysiske auditorium (V232) - Fysikkbygningen
Title: “Numerical methods for transition path sampling in chemistry”
Main research findings
Water is known to weaken materials like rock and glass, a critical process in everything from earthquake dynamics to the durability of ceramics. Computer simulations can help us understand this weakening at the atomic level, showing how water molecules interact with a material as it breaks. However, existing simulation methods have faced a trade-off: they are often too slow to model the millions of atoms needed to see a crack propagate realistically, or they are not accurate enough to capture the chemical reactions happening at the crack's tip.
This thesis presents a new, computationally efficient model that tackles this dilemma. We have developed a tool that is both fast and allows for chemical reactions by using a specific framework, the Vashishta potential, to model atomic interactions. We optimized the model to successfully simulate water's behavior over a wide range of conditions and its reaction with a silica surface. These capabilities enable larger and longer simulations, providing a powerful new resource for understanding material failure in aqueous environments in geology, materials science, and engineering.
Adjudication Committee
- Professor Lars Pastewka, Department of Microsystems Engineering, University of Freiburg, Germany
- Associate Professor Senbo Xiao, Department of Structural Engineering, NTNU – Norwegian University of Science and Technology, Norway
- Dr. Gunnar Felix Lange, Department of Physics, UiO - University of Oslo, Norway
Supervisors
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Professor Anders Malthe-Sørensen, Department of Physics, University of Oslo, Norway
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Dr. Henrik Andersen Sveinsson, Department of Physics, University of Oslo, Norway
Chair of defence
Associate Professor Helge Balk, Department of Physics, University of Oslo, Norway
Contact information to Department: Line Trosterud Resvold