Related papers: Controlling cell motion and microscale flow with p…
Cell migration is closely linked to cell shape, yet cell size is often assumed to remain constant. This assumption is challenged by recent experiments showing that cells undergo volume loss during spreading and swelling upon activation,…
Cell polarization plays a central role in the development of complex organisms. It has been recently shown that cell polarization may follow from the proximity to a phase separation instability in a bistable network of chemical reactions.…
Understanding and interpretation of the dynamics of ultrarelativistic plasma is a challenge, which calls for the development of methods for \textit{in situ} probing the plasma dynamical characteristics. We put forward a new method,…
The rotation of polarization occurs for light interacting with chiral materials. It requires the light states with opposite chiralities interact differently with the materials. We demonstrate analogous rotation of polarization also exists…
Individual movements of a rod-like self-propelled particle on a flat substrate are quantified. Biological systems that fit into this description may be the Gram-negative delta-proteobacterium Myxococcus xanthus, Gram-negative bacterium…
The propagation of the arbitrarily polarized pulse of the weak probe field through the resonant medium of Lambda-type three-level atoms with degenerate levels adiabatically driven by the coherent coupling field is considered. It is shown…
Cell monolayers are a central model system to tissue biophysics. In vivo, epithelial tissues are curved on the scale of microns, and curvature's role in the onset of spontaneous tissue flows is still not well-understood. Here, we present a…
We demonstrate that polarization modulation of an illumination beam can effectively control the spatial profile of the light transmitted through turbid media. Since the transmitted electric fields are completely mingled in turbid media,…
Active-particle suspensions exhibit distinct polarization-density patterns in activity landscapes, even without anisotropic particle interactions. Such polarization without alignment forces is at work in motility-induced phase separation…
To date, optical orientation of free-carrier spins and spin currents have been achieved by circularly polarized light, while the linearly polarized light has been used for optical alignment of electron momenta. Here we show that, in…
Polymer fibers are currently exploited in tremendously important technologies. Their innovative properties are mainly determined by the behavior of the polymer macromolecules under the elongation induced by external mechanical or…
Active matter comprised of self-propelled interacting units holds a major promise for extraction of useful work from its seemingly chaotic out-of-equilibrium dynamics. Streamlining active matter to produce work is especially important at…
We consider the hydrodynamic theory of an active fluid of self-propelled particles with nematic aligning interactions. This class of materials has polar symmetry at the microscopic level, but forms macrostates of nematic symmetry. We…
Nonlinear magneto-optical rotation is studied under non-equilibrium conditions. The polarization rotation of linearly polarized light traversing a rubidium vapor cell is observed versus the time-dependent (swept) longitudinal magnetic field…
Active particles (living or synthetic) often move through inhomogeneous environments, such as gradients in light, heat or nutrient concentration, that can lead to directed motion (or taxis). Recent research has explored inhomogeneity in the…
Collective response to external directional cues like electric fields plays a pivotal role in processes such as tissue development, regeneration, and wound healing. In this study we focus on the impact of anisotropy in cell shape and local…
The dynamics of swimming bacteria depend on the properties of their habitat media. Recently it was shown that the motion of swimming bacteria dispersed directly in a non-toxic water-based lyotropic chromonic liquid crystal can be controlled…
Spontaneous directed motion, a hallmark of cell biology, is unusual in classical statistical physics. Here we study, using both numerical and analytical methods, organized motion in models of the cytoskeleton in which constituents are…
We show that the polarization state of coherent light propagating through an optically thick multiple-scattering medium, can be controlled by wavefront shaping, i.e. by controlling only the spatial phase of the incoming field with a spatial…
Self-propelled particles move along circles rather than along a straight line when their driving force does not coincide with their propagation direction. Examples include confined bacteria and spermatozoa, catalytically driven nanorods,…