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Related papers: Driven active and passive nematics

200 papers

Morphodynamic equations governing the behaviour of active nematic fluids on deformable curved surfaces are constructed in the large deformation limit. Emphasis is placed on the formulation of objective rates that account for normal…

Soft Condensed Matter · Physics 2023-02-22 Sami C. Al-Izzi , Richard G. Morris

We formulate the statistical dynamics of topological defects in the active nematic phase, formed in two dimensions by a collection of self-driven particles on a substrate. An important consequence of the non-equilibrium drive is the…

Soft Condensed Matter · Physics 2018-09-12 Suraj Shankar , Sriram Ramaswamy , M. Cristina Marchetti , Mark J. Bowick

One of the defining features of active nematics is that above a critical activity the quiescent state becomes unstable to a distorted, flowing one. We show that spatial variations in activity can fundamentally change the nature of this…

Soft Condensed Matter · Physics 2025-12-15 Alexander J. H. Houston , Michael Grinfeld , Geoff McKay , Nigel J. Mottram

We study the dynamics of active nematic films on a substrate driven by active flows with or without the incompressible constraint.Through simulations and theoretical analysis, we show that arch patterns are stable in the compressible case,…

Soft Condensed Matter · Physics 2022-11-30 Supavit Pokawanvit , Zhitao Chen , Zhihong You , Luiza Angheluta , M. Cristina Marchetti , Mark J. Bowick

We consider the dynamics of active nematics droplets on flat surfaces, based on the continuum hydrodynamic theory. We investigate a wide range of dynamical regimes as a function of the activity and droplet size on surfaces characterized by…

Soft Condensed Matter · Physics 2023-09-11 Rodrigo C. V. Coelho , Hélio R. J. C. Figueiredo , Margarida M. Telo da Gama

Topological defects play a central role in the formation and organization of various biological systems. Historically, such nonequilibrium defects have been mainly studied in the context of homogeneous active nematics. Phase-separated…

Soft Condensed Matter · Physics 2023-07-13 Timo Krüger , Ivan Maryshev , Erwin Frey

Active nematics are microscopically driven liquid crystals that exhibit dynamical steady states characterized by the creation and annihilation of topological defects. Motivated by experimental realizations of such systems made of biopolymer…

Soft Condensed Matter · Physics 2018-09-05 Abhijeet Joshi , Elias Putzig , Aparna Baskaran , Michael Hagan

Colloidal inclusions in nematic fluids induce topological defects that govern their dynamics. These defects create well-understood rheological behavior in passive nematics, but the interplay between colloid-associated defects and…

Soft Condensed Matter · Physics 2025-03-26 Timofey Kozhukhov , Benjamin Loewe , Kristian Thijssen , Tyler N. Shendruk

Topological defects in active liquid crystals can be confined by introducing gradients of activity. Here, we examine the dynamical behavior of two defects confined by a sharp gradient of activity that separates an active circular region and…

Soft Condensed Matter · Physics 2021-06-16 Ali Mozaffari , Rui Zhang , Noe Atzin , Juan J. de Pablo

Incorporating the inherent heterogeneity of living systems into models of active nematics is essential to provide a more realistic description of biological processes such as bacterial growth, cell dynamics and tissue development.…

Soft Condensed Matter · Physics 2024-11-06 Alexander J. H. Houston , Nigel J. Mottram

We describe a numerical investigation of a continuum model of an active nematic, concentrating on the regime of active turbulence. Results are presented for the effect of three parameters, activity, elastic constant and rotational diffusion…

Soft Condensed Matter · Physics 2015-06-18 Sumesh P. Thampi , Ramin Golestanian , Julia M. Yeomans

Active matter is naturally out of equilibrium which results in the emergence of diverse dynamic steady states, including the omnipresent chaotic state known as the active turbulence. However, much less is known how active systems…

Soft Condensed Matter · Physics 2023-04-07 Nika Kralj , Miha Ravnik , Žiga Kos

We present a hydrodynamic model for a thin spherical shell of active nematic liquid crystal with an arbitrary configuration of defects. The active flows generated by defects in the director lead to the formation of stable vortices,…

Soft Condensed Matter · Physics 2017-11-13 Diana Khoromskaia , Gareth P. Alexander

The problem of low Reynolds number turbulence in active nematic fluids is theoretically addressed. Using numerical simulations I demonstrate that an incompressible turbulent flow, in two-dimensional active nematics, consists of an ensemble…

Soft Condensed Matter · Physics 2015-08-04 Luca Giomi

We study the dynamics of topological defects in active nematic films with spatially-varying activity and consider two setups: i) a constant activity gradient, and ii) a sharp jump in activity. A constant gradient of extensile (contractile)…

Soft Condensed Matter · Physics 2022-09-02 Jonas Rønning , M. Cristina Marchetti , Luiza Angheluta

We investigate the dynamics of active nematic liquid crystals on deformable membranes, focusing on the interplay between active stress and anisotropic curvature coupling. Using a minimal model, we simulate the coupled evolution of the…

Soft Condensed Matter · Physics 2026-05-19 Yuki Hirota , Nariya Uchida

We study how confinement transforms the chaotic dynamics of bulk microtubule-based active nematics into regular spatiotemporal patterns. For weak confinements, multiple continuously nucleating and annihilating topological defects…

The topological properties of many materials are central to their behavior, with the dynamics of topological defects being particularly important to intrinsically out-of-equilibrium, active materials. In this paper, local manipulation of…

Soft Condensed Matter · Physics 2019-11-01 David P. Rivas , Tyler N. Shendruk , Robert R. Henry , Daniel H. Reich , Robert L. Leheny

Recent studies have shown that packings of cells, both eukaryotic cellular tissues and growing or swarming bacterial colonies, can often be understood as active nematic fluids. A key property of volume-conserving active nematic model…

Soft Condensed Matter · Physics 2022-05-12 Fabian Jan Schwarzendahl , Daniel A. Beller

We study emergent dynamics in a viscous drop subject to interfacial nematic activity. Using hydrodynamic simulations, we show how the interplay of nematodynamics, activity-driven flows and surface deformations gives rise to a sequence of…

Soft Condensed Matter · Physics 2024-04-19 Mohammadhossein Firouznia , David Saintillan