Shape Switching and Tunable Oscillations of Adaptive Droplets
Soft Condensed Matter
2026-01-27 v3 Statistical Mechanics
Biological Physics
Abstract
Living materials adapt their shape to signals from the environment, yet the impact of shape changes on signal processing and associated feedback dynamics remain unclear. We find that droplets with signal-responsive interfacial tensions exhibit shape bistability, excitable dynamics, and oscillations. The underlying critical points reveal novel mechanisms for physical signal processing through shape adaptation in soft active materials. We recover signatures of one such critical point in experimental data from zebrafish embryos, where it supports boundary formation.
Keywords
Cite
@article{arxiv.2402.08664,
title = {Shape Switching and Tunable Oscillations of Adaptive Droplets},
author = {Tim Dullweber and Roman Belousov and Camilla Autorino and Nicoletta Petridou and Anna Erzberger},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2402.08664},
year = {2026}
}
Comments
Further details and the derivation of the analysed equations are provided in the companion preprint arXiv:2411.15165