Related papers: Hydrodynamically interrupted droplet growth in sca…
Controlling the size of droplets, for example in biological cells, is challenging because large droplets typically outcompete smaller droplets due to surface tension. This coarsening is generally accelerated by hydrodynamic effects, but…
In active systems, whose constituents have non-equilibrium dynamics at local level, fluid-fluid phase separation is widely observed. Examples include the formation of membraneless organelles within cells; the clustering of self-propelled…
Understanding how multi-component liquid mixtures undergo phase separation is central to elucidating biophysical organization in the cell. Here, combining analytical and numerical results, we characterise the dynamics of mixtures with…
In phase-separated active fluids, the Ostwald process can go into reverse leading to either microphase separation or bubbly phase separation. We show that the latter is formed of two macroscopic regions that are occupied by the homogeneous…
We study the hydrodynamics and shape changes of chemically active droplets. In non-spherical droplets, surface tension generates hydrodynamic flows that drive liquid droplets into a spherical shape. Here we show that spherical droplets that…
We present a continuum theory of self-propelled particles, without alignment interactions, in a momentum-conserving solvent. To address phase separation we introduce a scalar concentration field $\phi$ with advective-diffusive dynamics.…
Phase separation has recently emerged as an important organizational principle in the dense and heterogeneous environment within living cells. Here, we use a synthetic system to show that compressive stresses in a polymer network suppress…
Liquid-liquid phase separation is an important mechanism for compartmentalizing the cell's cytoplasm, allowing the dynamic organization of the components necessary for survival. However, it is not clear how phase separation is affected by…
In passive fluid-fluid phase separation, a single interfacial tension sets both the capillary fluctuations of the interface and the rate of Ostwald ripening. We show that these phenomena are governed by two different tensions in active…
Absence of Ostwald ripening has been observed in living cells, which operate out of equilibrium. Using molecular dynamics we study the behaviour of liquid droplets away from equilibrium in a system of particles interacting with each other…
Clustering passive particles by active agents is a promising route for fabrication of colloidal structures. Here, we report the dynamic clustering of micrometric beads in a suspension of motile bacteria. We characterize the coarsening…
We study the activity of "living" droplets, which confine 1-6 mesoswimmers in 3D using a superhydrophobic substrate. The swimmers induce oscillations of the droplets at their inherent resonant frequencies, regardless of swimmer size and…
The phase separation mechanism of a binary liquid mixture off-critically quenched in its miscibility gap is nucleation and growth, its homogeneous phase reaching a metastable equilibrium state. The successive stages of growth of the…
Phase separation of biomolecular condensates promotes membrane-free compartmentalization in cells. The dynamics of these biocondensates is routinely regulated by energy-consuming processes. Here, we devise a theory pinpointing how active…
Liquid-liquid phase separation is important across biology, physics, and materials science. Although usually studied at equilibrium, active components - such as motor proteins, enzymes, and synthetic microswimmers - are increasingly…
We show theoretically that an imposed uniaxial anisotropy leads to new universality classes for the dynamics of active particles suspended in a viscous fluid. In the homogeneous state, their concentration relaxes superdiffusively, stirred…
When liquid droplets nucleate and grow in a polymer network, compressive stresses can significantly increase their internal pressure, reaching values that far exceed the Laplace pressure. When droplets have grown in a polymer network with a…
Three-dimensional, time-dependent direct simulations of step emulsification micro-devices highlight two essential mechanisms for droplet formation: first, the onset of an adverse pressure gradient driving a back-flow of the continuous phase…
Experimental observations of droplet size sustained oscillations are reported in a two-phase flow between a lamellar and a sponge phase. Under shear flow, this system presents two different steady states made of monodisperse multilamellar…
Populations of swimming microorganisms produce fluid motions that lead to dramatically enhanced diffusion of tracer particles. Using simulations of suspensions of swimming particles in a periodic domain, we capture this effect and show that…