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Related papers: Active colloids in liquid crystals

200 papers

Microscopic active droplets are of interest since they can be used to transport matter from one point to another. The challenge is to control the trajectory. In this work, we demonstrate an approach to control the direction of active…

Soft Condensed Matter · Physics 2024-06-17 Vanessa Jirón , Mojtaba Rajabi , Hao Wang , Oleg D. Lavrentovich

The aggregation of binary colloids of same size and balanced charges is studied by Brownian dynamics simulations for dilute suspensions. It is shown that, under appropriate conditions, the formation of colloidal crystals is dominated by…

Soft Condensed Matter · Physics 2015-06-12 D. Bochicchio , A. Videcoq , R. Ferrando

There are many examples of driven and active matter systems containing particles that exhibit circular motion with different chiralities, such as swimming bacteria near surfaces or certain types of self-driven colloidal particles. Circular…

Statistical Mechanics · Physics 2015-06-16 C. Reichhardt , C. J. Olson Reichhardt

Active liquid crystals or active gels are soft materials which can be physically realised e.g. by preparing a solution of cytoskeletal filaments interacting with molecular motors. We study the hydrodynamics of an active liquid crystal in a…

Soft Condensed Matter · Physics 2007-06-29 D. Marenduzzo , E. Orlandini , M. E. Cates , J. M. Yeomans

Active fluids refer to the fluids that contain self-propelled particles such as bacteria or micro-algae, whose properties differ fundamentally from the passive fluids. Such particles often exhibit an intermittent motion, with high-motility…

Biological Physics · Physics 2020-03-05 Thomas Vourc'h , Julien Léopoldès , Hassan Peerhossaini

Electrically-controlled dynamics of fluids and particles at microscales is a fascinating area of research with applications ranging from microfluidics and sensing to sorting of biomolecules. The driving mechanisms are electric forces acting…

Soft Condensed Matter · Physics 2015-06-22 Israel Lazo , Chenhui Peng , Jie Xiang , Sergij V. Shiyanovskii , Oleg D. Lavrentovich

Melting of two-dimensional (2D) equilibrium crystals, from superconducting vortex lattices to colloidal structures, is a complex phenomenon characterized by the sequential loss of positional and orientational order. Whereas melting…

Soft Condensed Matter · Physics 2021-10-27 Martin James , Dominik Anton Suchla , Jörn Dunkel , Michael Wilczek

We study catalytic Janus swimmers and Escherichia coli bacteria swimming in a two-dimensional colloidal crystal. The Janus swimmers orbit individual colloids and hop between colloids stochastically, with a hopping rate that varies inversely…

In the present paper, we investigate the polarization properties of the cholesteric liquid crystals (CLCs) with an isotropic/anisotropic defect inside them. Possibilities of amplification of the polarization plane rotation and stabilization…

Motile living organisms routinely probe their surroundings to adapt in ever-evolving environments. Although synthetic microswimmers offer surrogates for self-propelled living entities, they often lack the complex feedback mechanisms that…

Via mechanisms not accessible at equilibrium, self-propelled particles can form phases with positional order, such as crystals, and with orientational order, such as polar flocks. However, the interplay between these two types of order…

Soft Condensed Matter · Physics 2025-08-13 Till Welker , Ricard Alert

It is well known that periodic potentials can be used to induce freezing and melting in colloids. Here, we transfer this concept to active systems and find the emergence of a so-far unknown active matter phase in between the frozen…

Soft Condensed Matter · Physics 2026-01-05 Aritra K. Mukhopadhyay , Peter Schmelcher , Benno Liebchen

Active matter describes materials whose constituents are driven out of equilibrium by continuous energy consumption, for instance from ATP. Due to the orientable character of the constituents, active suspensions can attain liquid…

Soft Condensed Matter · Physics 2020-11-03 L. N. Carenza , G. Gonnella , G. Negro

It has been shown that self-assembled chains of active colloidal particles can present sustained oscillations. These oscillations are possible because of the effective diffusiophoretic forces that mediate the interactions of colloids do not…

Soft Condensed Matter · Physics 2018-03-23 S. Gonzalez , R. Soto

We review recent experimental, numerical, and analytical results on active suspensions of self-propelled colloidal beads moving in (quasi) two dimensions. Active colloids form part of the larger theme of active matter, which is noted for…

Soft Condensed Matter · Physics 2014-09-03 Julian Bialké , Thomas Speck , Hartmut Löwen

Nonlinear electrokinetic phenomena, where electrically driven fluid flows depend nonlinearly on the applied voltage, are commonly encountered in aqueous suspensions of colloidal particles. A prime example is the induced-charge…

Soft Condensed Matter · Physics 2024-11-27 Zhanwen Wang , Michael J. Miksis , Petia M. Vlahovska

Chromonic liquid crystals (CLCs) are lyotropic materials which are attracting growing interest for their adaptability to living systems. A considerable body of works has been devoted to exploring their properties and applications. In this…

Soft Condensed Matter · Physics 2025-09-04 Silvia Paparini

Friction is central to the motion of active (self-propelled) objects such as bacteria, animals, and robots. While in a viscous fluid friction is described by Stokes's law, objects in contact with other solid bodies are often governed by…

Soft Condensed Matter · Physics 2024-11-12 Alexander P. Antonov , Lorenzo Caprini , Anton Ldov , Christian Scholz , Hartmut Löwen

Liquid crystals formed by acute-angle bent-core (ABC) molecules with a 1,7 naphthalene central core show an intriguing phase behavior with the nematic phase accompanied by poorly understood additional phases. In this work, we characterize…

Active nematics are materials composed of mobile, elongated particles that can transform energy from the environment into a mechanical motion. Current experimental realizations of the active nematics are of biological origin and include…

Soft Condensed Matter · Physics 2024-06-05 Andrey Sokolov , Jaideep Katuri , Juan J. de Pablo , Alexey Snezhko