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Related papers: Topological defects in multi-layered swarming bact…

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We formulate the statistical dynamics of topological defects in the active nematic phase, formed in two dimensions by a collection of self-driven particles on a substrate. An important consequence of the non-equilibrium drive is the…

Soft Condensed Matter · Physics 2018-09-12 Suraj Shankar , Sriram Ramaswamy , M. Cristina Marchetti , Mark J. Bowick

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…

Soft Condensed Matter · Physics 2016-07-27 Amin Doostmohammadi , Sumesh P. Thampi , Julia M. Yeomans

Recent experiments and numerical studies have drawn attention to the dynamics of active nematics. Two-dimensional active nematics flow spontaneously and exhibit spatiotemporal chaotic flows with proliferation of topological defects in the…

Soft Condensed Matter · Physics 2020-07-08 Farzan Vafa , Mark J. Bowick , M. Cristina Marchetti , Boris I. Shraiman

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,…

Soft Condensed Matter · Physics 2026-03-19 Ido Lavi , Ricard Alert , Jean-François Joanny , Jaume Casademunt

To enhance the understanding of the behavior of active nematic, it is important to understand the behavior of topological defects. In this paper, we study the configuration of topological defects of a two-dimensional active nematic around a…

Soft Condensed Matter · Physics 2026-02-16 Hiroki Matsukiyo , Jun-ichi Fukuda

Active living matter continuously creates and annihilates topological defects in a process that remains poorly understood. Here, we investigate these dynamics in two distinct active living systems: swarming bacteria and human bronchial…

In two dimensional nematics, topological defects are point like singularities with both a charge and a phase. We study topological defects within curved nematic textures on the surface of a cylinder. This allows us to isolate the effect of…

Soft Condensed Matter · Physics 2022-05-10 Daniel J. G. Pearce

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…

Soft Condensed Matter · Physics 2024-05-24 Ingo Nitschke , Axel Voigt

Point-like topological defects are singular configurations that occur in a variety of in and out of equilibrium systems with two-dimensional orientational order. As they are associated with a nonzero circuitation condition, the presence of…

Statistical Mechanics · Physics 2023-07-13 Jacopo Romano , Benoît Mahault , Ramin Golestanian

The growing interest in active nematics and the emerging evidence of the relevance of topological defects in biology asks for reliable data analysis tools to identify, classify and track such defects in simulation and microscopy data. We…

Soft Condensed Matter · Physics 2020-02-10 Dennis Wenzel , Michael Nestler , Sebastian Reuther , Maximilian Simon , Axel Voigt

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…

Soft Condensed Matter · Physics 2015-04-28 Sumesh P. Thampi , Ramin Golestanian , Julia M. Yeomans

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…

Topology transcends boundaries that conventionally delineate physical, biological and engineering sciences. Our ability to mathematically describe topology, combined with our access to precision tracking and manipulation approaches, has…

Biological Physics · Physics 2021-01-01 Anupam Sengupta

Grain boundaries in extremely confined colloidal smectics possess a topological fine structure with coexisting nematic and tetratic symmetry of the director field. An alternative way to approach the problem of smectic topology is via the…

Soft Condensed Matter · Physics 2024-04-24 René Wittmann

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…

Soft Condensed Matter · Physics 2021-06-16 Ali Mozaffari , Rui Zhang , Noe Atzin , Juan J. de Pablo

Active processes drive and guide biological dynamics across scales -- from subcellular cytoskeletal remodelling, through tissue development in embryogenesis, to population-level bacterial colonies expansion. In each of these, biological…

Heterogeneous systems of active matter exhibit a range of complex emergent dynamical patterns. In particular, it is difficult to predict the properties of the mixed system based on its constituents. These considerations are particularly…

Soft Condensed Matter · Physics 2021-04-07 Shlomit Peled , Shawn D. Ryan , Sebastian Heidenreich , Markus Bar , Gil Ariel , Avraham Be'er

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…

Soft Condensed Matter · Physics 2026-05-26 Luca Casagrande , Alessandro Manacorda , Etienne Fodor

Bacterial swarming is a rapid mass-migration, in which thousands of cells spread collectively to colonize a surface. Physically, swarming is a natural example of active particles that use energy to generate motion. Accordingly,…

Soft Condensed Matter · Physics 2019-11-14 Avraham Be`er , Bella Ilkanaiv , Renan Gross , Daniel B. Kearns , Sebastian Heidenreich , Markus Bär , Gil Ariel

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…

Soft Condensed Matter · Physics 2017-03-13 Francesco Alaimo , Christian Köhler , Axel Voigt