Related papers: Computing with non-orientable defects: nematics, s…
Many networks describing complex systems are directed: the interactions between elements are not symmetric. Recent work has shown that these networks can display properties such as trophic coherence or non-normality, which in turn affect…
Topological defects are typically quantified relative to ordered backgrounds. The importance of these defects to the understanding of physical phenomena including diverse equilibrium melting transitions from low temperature ordered to…
Mechanically quenching a thin film of smectic-C liquid crystal results in the formation of a dense array of thousands of topological defects in the director field. The subsequent rapid coarsening of the film texture by the mutual…
Several aspects of classical and quantum mechanics applied to a class of strongly chaotic systems are studied. These consist of single particles moving without external forces on surfaces of constant negative Gaussian curvature whose…
Point defects in solid-state materials are now routinely simulated using large supercell structures, requiring efficient quantum mechanical solutions. Data-driven and machine learning (ML) models trained on computational data can enable…
Conventional electronics is founded on a paradigm where shaping perfect electrical elements is done at the fabrication plant, so as to make devices and systems identical, "eternally immutable". In nature, morphogenic evolutions are observed…
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…
Ordered nanoarrays, i.e. regular patterns of quantum structures at the nanometre scale, have recently been synthesized in a wide range of systems. Here I explore a possible route to technological exploitation: assuming a simple form of…
This paper explores the topologies of caustics observed in instruments that employ charged particles, such as electron and ion microscopes. These geometrical figures are studied here using catastrophe theory. The application of this…
Biological surfaces, such as developing epithelial tissues, exhibit in-plane polar or nematic order and can be strongly curved. Recently, integer (+1) topological defects have been identified as morphogenetic hotspots in living systems.…
We report the discovery of a mixed orientational structure in the quasi-one-dimensional fluid of hard non-spherical bodies with the exact calculation of the thermodynamic and structural quantities using the transfer operator method. The…
Twisted assemblies of filaments in ropes, cables and bundles are essential structural elements in wide use in macroscopic materials as well as within the cells and tissues of living organisms. We develop the unique, non-linear elastic…
How do topological defects affect the degree of order in active matter? To answer this question we investigate an agent-based model of self-propelled particles, which accounts for polar alignment and short-ranged repulsive interactions. For…
We study nonequilibrium dynamics of relativistic $N$-component scalar field theories in Minkowski space-time in a classical-statistical regime, where typical occupation numbers of modes are much larger than unity. In this strongly…
We consider the slow and athermal deformations of amorphous solids and show how the ensuing sequence of discrete plastic rearrangements can be mapped onto a directed network. The network topology reveals a set of highly connected regions…
Diffusion-driven patterns appear on curved surfaces in many settings, initiated by unstable modes of an underlying Laplacian operator. On a flat surface or perfect sphere, the patterns are degenerate, reflecting translational/rotational…
Turing patterns are stationary, wave-like structures that emerge from the nonequilibrium assembly of reactive and diffusive components. While they are foundational in biophysics, their classical formulation relies on a single characteristic…
Due to the lack of long-range order, it remains challenging to characterize the structure of disordered solids and understand the nature of the glass transition. Here we propose a new structural order parameter by taking into account…
Disordered systems like liquids, gels, glasses, or granular materials are not only ubiquitous in daily life and in industrial applications but they are also crucial for the mechanical stability of cells or the transport of chemical and…
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,…