Related papers: Defect self-propulsion in active nematic films wit…
Topological defects in active polar fluids can organise spontaneous flows and influence macroscopic density patterns. Both of them play, for example, an important role during animal development. Yet the influence of density on active flows…
Vortices in fluids and superfluids are fundamental to phenomena ranging from Bose-Einstein condensates and superfluid films to neutron stars and hydrodynamic micro-rotors, where background geometry often plays an important role. Curvature…
Confining a liquid crystal imposes topological constraints on the orientational order, allowing global control of equilibrium systems by manipulation of anchoring boundary conditions. In this article, we investigate whether a similar…
We investigate the mechanics of an active droplet endowed with internal nematic order and surrounded by an isotropic Newtonian fluid. Using numerical simulations we demonstrate that, due to the interplay between the active stresses and the…
Self-propulsion is a quintessential aspect of biological systems, which can induce nonequilibrium phenomena that have no counterparts in passive systems. Motivated by biophysical interest together with recent advances in experimental…
We use density--functional theory to study the structure of two-dimensional defects inside a circular nematic nanocavity. The density, nematic order parameter, and director fields, as well as the defect core energy and core radius, are…
Active nematics are microscopically driven liquid crystals that exhibit dynamical steady states characterized by the creation and annihilation of topological defects. Motivated by experimental realizations of such systems made of biopolymer…
We study the annihilation of topological defect pairs in the quasi-twodimensional (2D) geometry of freely suspended smectic films. This elementary process is at the basis of all models describing the statistics of complex defect patterns.…
We investigate numerically and analytically the effects of hydrodynamics on the dynamics of topological defects in $p-$atic liquid crystals, i.e. two-dimensional liquid crystals with $p-$fold rotational symmetry. Importantly, we find that…
We consider a phenomenological continuum theory for an extensile, overdamped active nematic liquid crystal, applicable in the dense regime. Constructed from general principles, the theory is universal, with parameters independent of any…
Morphological trends in growing colonies of living cells are at the core of physiological and evolutionary processes. Using active gel equations, which include cell division, we show that shape changes during the growth can be regulated by…
The electron transport in current-biased superconducting nano-bridges is determined by the motion of the quantum vortex confined in the internal disorder landscape. Here we consider a simple case of a single or two neighbouring linear…
We numerically investigate the morphology and disclination line dynamics of active nematic droplets in three dimensions. Although our model only incorporates the simplest possible form of achiral active stress, active nematic droplets…
In the last years self-motile droplets attracted the attention of scientists from different fields ranging from applied biology to theoretical physics, because of their promising technological applications and important biological…
Negative differential mobility is the phenomenon in which the velocity of a particle decreases when the force driving it increases. We study this phenomenon in Markov jump models where a particle moves in the presence of walls that act as…
We use numerical simulations and linear stability analysis to study active nematic droplets, in the regime where the passive phase is isotropic. We show that activity leads to the emergence of nematic order and of spontaneous rotation in…
Activity in nematics drives interfacial flows that lead to preferential alignment that is tangential or planar for extensile systems (pushers) and perpendicular or homeotropic for contractile ones (pullers). This alignment is known as…
Internal activity can fundamentally reshape the mechanical behavior of solids, yet its role in softening and failure remains incompletely understood. In this study, we investigate spontaneous deformations in activated solids via non-affine…
Gravitational effects in colloidal suspensions can be easily turned off by matching the density of the solid microparticles with the one of the surrounding fluid. By studying the motion of catalytic microswimmers with tunable buoyant…
We investigate the dynamics of mobile inclusions embedded in 2D active nematics. The interplay between the inclusion shape, the boundary-induced nematic order, and the autonomous flow powers the inclusion motion. Disks and achiral gears…