Related papers: Topology of three-dimensional active nematic turbu…
We investigate similarities in the micro-structural dynamics between externally driven and actively driven nematics. Walls, lines of strong deformations in the director field, and topological defects are characteristic features of an active…
The collective effects of microswimmers in active suspensions result in active turbulence, a spatiotemporally chaotic dynamics at mesoscale, which is characterized by the presence of vortices and jets at scales much larger than the…
Topological defects are singularities in material fields that play a vital role across a range of systems: from cosmic microwave background polarization to superconductors, and biological materials. Although topological defects and their…
Topological defects are increasingly being identified in various biological systems, where their characteristic flow fields and stress patterns are associated with continuous active stress generation by biological entities. Here, using…
Elastic turbulence is a spatially and temporally disordered flow state appearing in viscoelastic fluids at vanishing fluid inertia and large elasticity. The resulting flows have broad technological interest, particularly to enhance mixing…
In chaotic deterministic systems, seemingly stochastic behavior is generated by relatively simple, though hidden, organizing rules and structures. Prominent among the tools used to characterize this complexity in 1D and 2D systems are…
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…
We consider active nematodynamics on deformable surfaces. Based on a thermodynamically consistent surface Beris-Edwards model we add nematic activity and focus on the emerging additional coupling mechanism between the nematic field, the…
Near absolute zero, superfluid liquid helium displays quantum properties at macroscopic length scales. One property, superfluidity, means flow with zero viscosity. Another property, the existence of a complex wavefunction, constrains the…
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.…
By means of the variational method and numerical simulations, we demonstrate the existence of stable 3D nonlinear modes, viz. vortex ``bullets'', in the form of pulsed beams carrying orbital angular momentum, that can self-trap in a 2D…
Recent studies point out far-reaching connections between the topological characteristics of structural glasses and their material properties, paralleling results in quantum physics that highlight the relevance of the nature of the…
The study of quantum vortices provides critical insights into non-equilibrium dynamics across diverse physical systems. While previous research has focused on point-like vortices in two dimensions and line-like vortices in three dimensions,…
Active fluids exhibit chaotic flows at low Reynolds number known as active turbulence. Whereas the statistical properties of the chaotic flows are increasingly well understood, the nature of the transition from laminar to turbulent flows as…
Cultured stem cells have become a standard platform not only for regenerative medicine and developmental biology but also for biophysical studies. Yet, the characterization of cultured stem cells at the level of morphology and macroscopic…
This work examines self-mixing in active nematics, a class of fluids in which mobile topological defects drive chaotic flows in a system comprised of biological filaments and molecular motors. We present experiments that demonstrate how…
The self-propulsion of +1/2 topological defects is a hallmark of active nematic fluids, where the defects are advected by the flow field they themselves generate. In this paper we propose a minimal model for defect self-propulsion in a…
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…
We report numerical results for the hydrodynamics of inhomogeneous lyotropic and extensile active nematic gels. By simulating the coupled Cahn-Hilliard, Navier-Stokes, and Beris-Edwards equation for the evolution of the composition, flow…
Topological defects, which are singular points in a director field, play a major role in shaping active systems. Here, we experimentally study topological defects and the flow patterns around them, that are formed during the highly rapid…