Related papers: Colloidal Clusters as models for chiral active mic…

We theoretically study the motion of a rigid dimer of self-propelling Janus particles. In a simple kinetic approach without hydrodynamic interactions, the dimer moves on a helical trajectory and, at the same time, it rotates about its…

Janus particles self-propel by generating local tangential concentration gradients along their surface. These gradients are present in a thin layer whose thickness is small compared to the particle size. Chemical asymmetry along the surface…

We study the dynamics of quasi-two-dimensional concentrated suspensions of colloidal particles in active gels by computer simulations. Remarkably, we find that activity induces a dynamic clustering of colloids even in the absence of any…

It has been experimentally shown that Brownian motion and active forward drift controlled by quorum sensing is sufficient to produce clustering behavior in orientable Janus particles. This paper explores the group formation and cohesion of…

We experimentally study the motion of light-activated colloidal microswimmers in a viscoelastic fluid. We find that, in such a non-Newtonian environment, the active colloids undergo an unexpected transition from enhanced angular diffusion…

How thousands of microtubules and molecular motors self-organize into spindles remains poorly understood. By combining static, nanometer-resolution, large-scale electron tomography reconstructions and dynamic, optical-resolution, polarized…

The generation of controlled microstructures of functionalized nanoparticles has been one of the crucial challenges in nanoscience and nanotechnology. Efforts have been made to tune ligand charge states that can affect the aggregation…

Active systems contain self-propelled particles and can spontaneously self-organize into patterns making them attractive candidates for the self-assembly of smart soft materials. One key limitation of our present understanding of these…

Colloidal molecules are ideal model systems for mimicking real molecules and can serve as versatile building blocks for the bottom-up self-assembly of flexible and smart materials. While most colloidal molecules are rigid objects, the…

Chemically active Janus particles generate tangential concentration gradients along their surface for self-propulsion. Although this is well studied in unbounded domains, the analysis in biologically relevant environments such as…

Active solids emerge from self-actuating components interacting with each other to form crystalline patterns. In equilibrium, commensurability underpins our understanding of nanoscale friction and particle-level dynamics of crystals.…

The underlying mechanisms and physics of catalytic Janus microswimmers is highly complex, requiring details of the associated phoretic fields and the physiochemical properties of catalyst, particle, boundaries, and the fuel used. Therefore,…

Emergence of collective dynamical chirality (CDC) at mesoscopic scales plays a key role in many formation processes of chiral structures in nature, which may also provide possible routines for people to fabricate complex chiral…

Microorganisms are able to overcome the thermal randomness of their surroundings by harvesting energy to navigate in viscous fluid environments. In a similar manner, synthetic colloidal microswimmers are capable of mimicking complex…

Active matter classifies systems consisting of self-propelled units which convert the energy stored locally or extracted from their environment into directed motion. It has recently attracted considerable attention due to rich new physics…

Collective motion in actively propelled particle systems is triggered on the very local scale by nucleation of coherently moving units consisting of just a handful of particles. These units grow and merge over time, ending up in a…

Guiding active motion is important for targeted delivery, sensing, and search tasks. Many active systems exhibit circular swimming, ubiquitous in chemical, physical, and biological systems, that biases motion and reduces transport…

We show that the chirality of triangular antiferromagnetic clusters can be used as a qubit even if it is entirely decoupled from the total spin of the cluster. In particular, we estimate the orbital moment associated to the chirality, and…

In modern applications of heterogeneous liquid-phase nanocatalysis, the catalysts (e.g., metal nanoparticles) need to be typically affixed to a colloidal carrier system for stability and easy handling. "Passive carriers" (e.g., simple…

Biological systems often involve the self-assembly of basic components into complex and function- ing structures. Artificial systems that mimic such processes can provide a well-controlled setting to explore the principles involved and also…