Related papers: Constrained motion of self-propelling eccentric di…
Detecting and quantifying non-equilibrium activity is essential for studying internally driven assemblies, including synthetic active matter and complex living systems such as cells or tissue. We discuss a non-invasive approach of measuring…
The interplay between activity and elasticity often found in active and living systems triggers a plethora of autonomous behaviors ranging from self-assembly and collective motion to actuation. Amongst these, spontaneous self-oscillations…
Non-reciprocal systems have been shown to sustain time-dependent patterns, most prominently travelling waves. The transition into these time-dependent states generally breaks time-translational invariance, representing a clear deviation…
We use numerical simulations to study the dynamics of dense assemblies of self-propelled particles in the limit of extremely large, but finite, persistence times. In this limit, the system evolves intermittently between mechanical…
While the dynamics of polymer chains in equilibrium media is well understood by now, the polymer dynamics in active non-equilibrium environments can be very different. Here we study the dynamics of polymers in a viscous medium containing…
The complex behavior of many natural and engineered systems emerges from the interaction of a small number of effective degrees of freedom. Discovering the physical basis of the interactions between these degrees of freedom directly from…
Measuring and quantifying non-equilibrium dynamics in active biological systems is a major challenge, because of their intrinsic stochastic nature and the limited number of variables accessible in any real experiment. We investigate what…
Polymers with active segments constitute prospective future materials and are used as a model for some biological systems such as chromatin. The directions of the active forces are typically introduced with temporal or spatial correlations…
We propose a model for the dynamics of a probe embedded in a living cell, where both thermal fluctuations and nonequilibrium activity coexist. The model is based on a confining harmonic potential describing the elastic cytoskeletal matrix,…
The conformational and dynamical properties of active ring polymers are studied by numerical simulations. The two-dimensionally confined polymer is modeled as a closed bead-spring chain, driven by tangential forces, put in contact with a…
Depinning and nonequilibrium transitions within sliding states in systems driven over quenched disorder arise across a wide spectrum of size scales ranging from atomic friction at the nanoscale, flux motion in type-II superconductors at the…
Marginally stable systems exhibit rich critical mechanical behavior. Such isostatic assemblies can be driven out of equilibrium by internal activity, but it remains unclear how the isostatic and critical nature of such systems affects their…
Thermodynamic behavior of polymer chains out of equilibrium is a fundamental problem in both polymer physics and biological physics. By using molecular dynamics simulation, we discover a general non-equilibrium mechanism that controls the…
Equilibrium self-assembly and conventional materials processing techniques fall far short of mimicking dynamic self-actuating processes that are commonplace throughout biology. To bridge the gap between living and synthetic matter, we study…
We discover a qualitatively new behavior for systems where the load transfer has limiting stress amplification as in real fiber composites. We find that the disorder is a relevant field leading to tri--criticality, separating a first-order…
Characterizing the properties of an extended system driven by active reservoirs is a question of increasing importance. Here we address this question in two steps. We start by investigating the dynamics of a probe particle connected to an…
Active systems are driven out of equilibrium by exchanging energy and momentum with their environment. This endows them with anomalous mechanical properties that we review in this colloquium for the case of dry scalar active matter, which…
The formation of dynamical patterns is one of the most striking features of nonequilibrium physical systems. Recent work has shown that such patterns arise generically from forces that violate Newton's third law, known as nonreciprocal…
Inhibitory neurons play a crucial role in maintaining persistent neuronal activity. Although connected extensively through electrical synapses (gap-junctions), these neurons also exhibit interactions through chemical synapses in certain…
We investigate the influence of a self-propelling, out-of-equilibrium active particle on generalized elastic systems, including flexible and semiflexible polymers, fluid membranes, and fluctuating interfaces, while accounting for…