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Recent experiments and numerical studies have drawn attention to the dynamics of active nematics. Two-dimensional active nematics flow spontaneously and exhibit spatiotemporal chaotic flows with proliferation of topological defects in the…

Soft Condensed Matter · Physics 2020-07-08 Farzan Vafa , Mark J. Bowick , M. Cristina Marchetti , Boris I. Shraiman

Topological defects play a prominent role in the physics of two-dimensional materials. When driven out of equilibrium in active nematics, disclinations can acquire spontaneous self-propulsion and drive self-sustained flows upon…

Soft Condensed Matter · Physics 2019-12-06 Suraj Shankar , M. Cristina Marchetti

We develop an approximate, analytical model for the velocity of defects in active nematics by combining recent results for the velocity of topological defects in nematic liquid crystals with the flow field generated from individual defects…

Soft Condensed Matter · Physics 2024-11-27 Cody D. Schimming , C. J. O. Reichhardt , C. Reichhardt

Defect dynamics in a thin active nematic layer is studied by asymptotic matching of solutions in the defect core and the far field. The analysis is facilitated by the correspondence between the 2D nematic and complex scalar field models.…

Soft Condensed Matter · Physics 2015-06-16 L. M. Pismen

A nematic liquid crystal confined to the surface of a sphere exhibits topological defects of total charge $+2$ due to the topological constraint. In equilibrium, the nematic field forms four $+1/2$ defects, located at the corners of a…

Soft Condensed Matter · Physics 2020-07-22 Yi-Heng Zhang , Markus Deserno , Zhan-Chun Tu

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

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

Topological defects play a key role in two-dimensional active nematics, and a transient role in two-dimensional active polar fluids. In this paper, we study both the transient and long-time behavior of defects in two-dimensional active…

Soft Condensed Matter · Physics 2020-09-24 Farzan Vafa

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 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 numerically investigate how spatial variations of extensile or contractile active stress affect bulk active nematic systems in two and three dimensions. In the absence of defects, activity gradients drive flows which re-orient the…

Soft Condensed Matter · Physics 2022-06-15 Liam J Ruske , Julia M Yeomans

We study a continuum model of an extensile active nematic to show that mesoscale turbulence develops in two stages: (i) ordered regions undergo an intrinsic hydrodynamic instability generating walls, lines of stong bend deformations, (ii)…

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

Topological defects in systems with liquid-crystalline order are crucial in determining their large-scale properties. In active systems, they are known to have properties impossible at equilibrium: for example, $+1/2$ defects in…

Soft Condensed Matter · Physics 2026-02-17 Giacomo Marco La Montagna , Sumeja Burekovic , Ananyo Maitra , Cesare Nardini

Point-like topological defects are singular configurations that occur in a variety of in and out of equilibrium systems with two-dimensional orientational order. As they are associated with a nonzero circuitation condition, the presence of…

Statistical Mechanics · Physics 2023-07-13 Jacopo Romano , Benoît Mahault , Ramin Golestanian

To enhance the understanding of the behavior of active nematic, it is important to understand the behavior of topological defects. In this paper, we study the configuration of topological defects of a two-dimensional active nematic around a…

Soft Condensed Matter · Physics 2026-02-16 Hiroki Matsukiyo , Jun-ichi Fukuda

Using agent-based simulations of self-propelled particles subject to short-range repulsion and nematic alignment we explore the dynamical phases of a dense active material confined to the surface of a sphere. We map the dynamical phase…

Soft Condensed Matter · Physics 2018-04-25 Silke Henkes , M. Cristina Marchetti , Rastko Sknepnek

Inspired by recent experiments that highlight the role of nematic defects in the morphogenesis of epithelial tissues, we develop a minimal framework to study the dynamics of an active curved surface driven by its nematic texture. Allowing…

Soft Condensed Matter · Physics 2022-09-14 Farzan Vafa , L. Mahadevan

Active nematics contain topological defects which under sufficient activity move, create and annihilate in a chaotic quasi-steady state, called active turbulence. However, understanding active defects under confinement is an open challenge,…

Soft Condensed Matter · Physics 2019-10-02 Simon Čopar , Jure Aplinc , Žiga Kos , Slobodan Žumer , Miha Ravnik

Active nematics are fluids in which the components have nematic symmetry and are driven out of equilibrium due to the microscopic generation of an active stress. When the active stress is high, it drives flows in the nematic and can lead to…

Soft Condensed Matter · Physics 2025-11-10 Daniel J. G. Pearce , Berta Martínez-Prat , Jordi Ignés-Mullol , Francesc Sagués

Topological defects are one of the most conspicuous features of liquid crystals. In two dimensional nematics, they have been shown to behave effectively as particles with both, charge and orientation, which dictate their interactions. Here,…

Soft Condensed Matter · Physics 2021-07-14 Daniel J. G. Pearce , Karsten Kruse
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