Related papers: Controlling active self-assembly through broken pa…

Actively propelled particles undergoing dissipative collisions are known to develop a state of spatially distributed coherently moving clusters. For densities larger than a characteristic value clusters grow in time and form a stationary…

We demonstrate that active rotations in chemically signalling particles, such as autochemotactic {\it E. coli} close to walls, create a route for pattern formation based on a nonlinear yet deterministic instability mechanism. For slow…

The surface curvature of membranes, interfaces, and substrates plays a crucial role in shaping the self-assembly of particles adsorbed on these surfaces. However, little is known about the interplay between particle anisotropy and surface…

This perspective will overview an emerging paradigm for self-organized soft materials, {\it geometrically-frustrated assemblies}, where interactions between self-assembling elements (e.g. particles, macromolecules, proteins) favor local…

The use of reduced models for investigating the self-assembly dynamics underlying protein shell formation in spherical viruses is described. The spontaneous self-assembly of these polyhedral, supramolecular structures, in which icosahedral…

Many types of mammalian cells exert active contractile forces and mechanically deform their elastic substrate, to accomplish biological functions such as cell migration. These substrate deformations provide a mechanism by which cells can…

We investigate a set of design principles that link specific features of interparticle interactions to predictable structural and dynamic outcomes in two-dimensional self-assembly, a framework relevant to soft matter and biological…

For collections of particles in a thermal bath interacting with an asymmetric substrate, it is possible for a ratchet effect to occur where the particles undergo a net dc motion in response to an ac forcing. Ratchet effects have been…

Robotic materials are multi-robot systems formulated to leverage the low-order computation and actuation of the constituents to manipulate the high-order behavior of the entire material. We study the behaviors of ensembles composed of smart…

We study an agent-based model of self-propelled particles with a velocity-dependent alignment rule. This interaction is orientation weighted and acts along the line connecting neighboring particles. Tuning the alignment strength produces…

By systematically varying the mobility of self-propelled particles in a two-dimensional (2D) lattice, we experimentally study the influence of particle mobility on system's collective motion. Our system is intrinsically non-equilibrium due…

Controlling the self-assembly of supramolecular structures is vital for living cells, and a central challenge for engineering at the nano- and microscales. Nevertheless, even particles without optimized shapes can robustly form well-defined…

Mixtures of particles that interact through phoretic effects are known to aggregate if they belong to species that exhibit attractive self-interactions. We study self-organization in a model metabolic cycle composed of three species of…

We analyse collective motion that occurs during rare (large deviation) events in systems of active particles, both numerically and analytically. We discuss the associated dynamical phase transition to collective motion, which occurs when…

Natural materials often feature a combination of soft and stiff phases, arranged to achieve excellent mechanical properties, such as high strength and toughness. Many natural materials have even independently evolved to have similar…

Amorphous particulate matter constitutes a wide range of natural and synthetic materials. Despite this ubiquity, the way in which these systems' disordered microstructure couples to their often subtle and complex dynamical behavior is not…

Self-alignment describes the property of a polar active unit to align or anti-align its orientation towards its velocity. In contrast to mutual alignment, where the headings of multiple active units tend to directly align to each other --…

Activity and autonomous motion are fundamental in living and engineering systems. This has stimulated the new field of active matter in recent years, which focuses on the physical aspects of propulsion mechanisms, and on motility-induced…

Large-scale collective behavior in suspensions of many particles can be understood from the balance of statistical forces emerging beyond the direct microscopic particle interactions. Here we review some aspects of the collective forces…

In the presence of an obstacle, active particles condensate into a surface "wetting" layer due to persistent motion. If the obstacle is asymmetric, a rectification current arises in addition to wetting. Asymmetric geometries are therefore…