Hiroshima University

International Institute for Sustainability with Knotted Chiral Meta Matter(SKCM2)
Center DirectorIvan I. Smalyukh

Professor Smalyukh is a World leader in material research and a recipient of many awards, including a presidential careeraward from the US White House. Within this project, he and the Center aspire to create new types of artificial materials bydesign, with physical properties not encountered in natural systems. This approach will enable highly desirable material
properties needed to help address challenging global problems, like the growing energy demand and climate change.

MissionResearchWe will develop artificial analogs of molecules, atoms
and even smaller building blocks of nature to gain deeper
understanding of the World around us. We will introduce
designable materials with highly desirable properties notencountered in nature, as well as create foundations fortechnological innovation to solve global problems &enable sustainable future. While pursuing this research,
we will create a testbed for research-based graduate
education reforms in Japan & beyond, connecting young
talent globally and inter-linking natural & social sciences
for sustainability.

Just like one can make a knot in a string, physical field lines (like the force fieldlines created by a magnet) can be knotted too. These knots then exhibit properties
force field linesof particles, which are artificial analogs of atoms. We can create them at will inmaterials like magnets & liquid crystals with the help of chirality, a property ofobjects with mirror images not overlapping each other, like our right and left
hands. We seek to establish a research paradigm of “knotted chiral meta matter,”with such knots in physical fields as its building blocks. We will probe
fundamental laws of nature at scales from its smallest building blocks to theentire Universe through recreating natural phenomena in experimentally
Chiralaccessible systems, like the liquid crystals used in displays. To accomplish this,we will integrate knowledge in pure & applied math with that in physics,
planetary science, cosmology, biology, material science & engineering. By
knotting & knitting physical fields and molecules, much like in the Mizuhiki
artforms, we will help reveal mysteries of nature & enable new physical behavior& desirable properties that overcome its limitations. We will create crystals of Knotted chiral meta matterknots in fields and other artificial analogs of natural matter, making new materials
by design. For example, we will enable thermal superinsulation needed to saveenergy wasted for heating and cooling buildings, which consume 40% of allenergy generated globally. Saving this energy by adopting our materials would
help reduce the global energy demand and mitigate climate change.

Identities
SKCM2 is the only
institute globally that:• develops knots infields as designablebuilding blocks ofartificial matter, thus
introducing a newparadigm of “knottedchiral meta matter”• creates materials from such artificial designable
particles to exhibit highly unusual & technologicallyuseful properties, overcoming nature’s limitations• cross-pollinates mathematical knot theory &chirality knowledge across disciplines & scales

Superinsulation

Collaborations
SKCM2

is a partnership of Hiroshima Univ. withRIKEN, Univ. of Tokyo & Tokyo Tech in Japan &MIT, CU-Boulder & Georgia Tech in the USA,Utrecht Univ. in the Netherlands, Cambridge Univ. inthe UK, Max Plank Institute in Germany, Univ. ofWroclaw in Poland & Academia Sinica in Taiwan.

Hiroshima University campus