Related papers: Integer defects, flow localization, and bistabilit…
The deformation mechanism in amorphous solids subjected to external shear remains poorly understood because of the absence of well-defined topological defects mediating the plastic deformation. The notion of soft spots has emerged as a…
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…
Colloids dispersed in nematic liquid crystals form topological composites in which colloid-associated defects mediate interactions while adhering to fundamental topological constraints. Better realising the promise of such materials…
Cylindrical interfaces occur in sheared or deformed emulsions and as biological or technological lipid monolayer or bilayer tubules. Like the corresponding spherical droplets and vesicles, these cylinder-like surfaces may host orientaional…
A nematic membrane is a sheet with embedded orientational order, which can occur in biological cells, liquid crystal films, manufactured materials, and other soft matter systems. By formulating the free energy of nematic films using tensor…
Flat sheets encoded with patterns of contraction/elongation morph into curved surfaces. If the surfaces bear Gauss curvature, the resulting actuation can be strong and powerful. We deploy the Gauss-Bonnet theorem to deduce the Gauss…
We study, from first principles, the pressure exerted by an active fluid of spherical particles on general boundaries in two dimensions. We show that, despite the non-uniform pressure along curved walls, an equation of state is recovered…
The energy landscapes of electrostatically charged particles embedded on constant mean curvature surfaces are analysed for a wide range of system size, curvature, and interaction potentials. The surfaces are taken to be rigid, and the…
Topological defects are singularities in material fields that play a vital role across a range of systems: from cosmic microwave background polarization to superconductors, and biological materials. Although topological defects and their…
The ability of soft matter such as drops and bubbles to change shape dynamically during interaction can give rise to counter-intuitive behaviour that may be expected of rigid materials. Here we show that dimple formation on approach and the…
We characterise the particlelike kinematics of charge-carrying topological defects in nematic media via a geometric field theory. This differs from the theory of electromagnetism, with which it is often compared, due to the absence of…
(3+1)D topological phases of matter can host a broad class of non-trivial topological defects of codimension-1, 2, and 3, of which the well-known point charges and flux loops are special cases. The complete algebraic structure of these…
The encapsulation of active particles, such as bacteria or active colloids, inside a droplet gives rise to nontrivial shape dynamics and droplet motility. To understand this behavior, we derive an asymptotic solution for the fluid flow…
Nonequilibrium dynamics of biomembranes with active inclusions is considered. The inclusions represent protein molecules which perform cyclic internal conformational motions driven by the energy brought with ATP ligands. As protein…
Collectively moving cellular systems often contain a proportion of dead cells or non-motile genotypes. When mixed, nematically aligning motile and non-motile agents are known to segregate spontaneously. However, the role that topological…
Identifying the regions responsible for plastic flow in amorphous solids remains an open problem, since structural disorder seems to prevent the direct application of concepts such as dislocations, topological defects that successfully…
We develop the theory of the coupling between in-plane order and out-of-plane geometry in twisted, two-dimensionally ordered filament bundles based on the non-linear continuum elasticity theory of columnar materials. We show that twisted…
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 propose an agent-based model of active flexible rods. Inspired by cytoskeletal flows, we introduce activity by an internal flow that contributes to the dissipative forces. The active force between our agents is central and reciprocal,…
The incompatibility of linearized piecewise smooth strain field, arising out of volumetric and surface densities of topological defects and metric anomalies, is investigated. First, general forms of compatibility equations are derived for a…