Related papers: Motile topological defects hinder dynamical arrest…

We study the spatiotemporal patterns that emerge when an active nematic film is topologically constraint. These topological constraints allow to control the non-equilibrium dynamics of the active system. We consider ellipsoidal shapes for…

Engineering synthetic materials that mimic the remarkable complexity of living organisms is a fundamental challenge in science and technology. We study the spatiotemporal patterns that emerge when an active nematicfilm of microtubules and…

Using molecular dynamics simulations, we study the slow dynamics of supercooled liquids confined in a random matrix of immobile obstacles. We study the dynamical crossover from glass-like to Lorentz-gas-like behavior in terms of the density…

The persistent dynamics in systems out of equilibrium, particularly those characterized by annihilation and creation of topological defects, is known to involve complicated spatiotemporal processes and is deemed difficult to control. Here…

Non-equilibrium dynamics of topological defects can be used as a fundamental propulsion mechanism in microscopic active matter. Here, we demonstrate swimming of topological defect-propelled colloidal particles in (passive) nematic fluids…

Topological defects are distinctive signatures of liquid crystals. They profoundly affect the viscoelastic behavior of the fluid by constraining the orientational structure in a way that inevitably requires global changes not achievable…

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…

We use colloidal suspensions encapsulated in emulsion droplets to model confined glass-forming liquids with tunable boundary mobility. We show dynamics in these idealized systems are governed by physical interactions with the boundary.…

Dynamic facilitation theory assumes short-ranged dynamic constraints to be the essential feature of supercooled liquids and draws much of its conclusions from the study of kinetically constrained models. While deceptively simple, these…

The dramatic slowing down of relaxation dynamics of liquids approaching the glass transition remains a highly debated problem, where the crux of the puzzle resides in the elusive increase of the activation barrier $\Delta E(T)$ with…

In pulsating active matter, topological defects are motile despite the absence of any macroscopic flows and microscopic self-propulsion. We reveal that this motility arises from a ratchet effect: the mechanochemical coupling between local…

Dense active matter is gaining widespread interest due to its remarkable similarity with conventional glass-forming materials. However, active matter is inherently out-of-equilibrium and even simple models such as active Brownian particles…

Advances in high-precision dielectric spectroscopy has enabled access to non-linear susceptibilities of polar molecular liquids. The observed non-monotonic behavior has been claimed to provide strong support for theories of dynamic arrest…

Crystallography typically studies collections of point particles whose interaction forces are the gradient of a potential. Lifting this assumption generically gives rise in the continuum limit to a form of elasticity with additional moduli…

Slow relaxation and heterogeneous dynamics are characteristic features of glasses. The presence of glassy dynamics in nonequilibrium systems, such as active matter, is of significant interest due to its implications for living systems and…

In molecular liquids such as water, time-delayed influences between microscopic or mesoscopic variables are typically probed using time-correlation functions, which are symmetric under detailed balance and therefore blind to dynamical…

By characterizing the dynamics of idealized lattice models with a tunable kinetic constraint, we explore the different ways in which dynamical facilitation manifests itself within the local dynamics of glassy materials. Dynamical…

When a nematic liquid crystal is confined in a porous medium with strong anchoring conditions, topological defects, called disclinations, are stably formed with numerous possible configurations. Since the energy barriers between them are…

Active fluids display spontaneous turbulent-like flows known as active turbulence. Recent work revealed that these flows have universal features, independent of the material properties and of the presence of topological defects. However,…

As liquids approach the glass transition temperature, dynamical heterogeneity emerges as a crucial universal feature of their behavior. Dynamic facilitation, where local motion triggers further motion nearby, plays a major role in this…