Related papers: Motility-induced crystallization and rotating crys…
It is well known that periodic potentials can be used to induce freezing and melting in colloids. Here, we transfer this concept to active systems and find the emergence of a so-far unknown active matter phase in between the frozen…
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…
Rapid solidification experiments on thin film aluminum samples reveal the presence of lattice orientation gradients within crystallizing grains. To study this phenomenon, a single-component phase-field crystal (PFC) model that captures the…
We perform a series of three-dimensional, magnetohydrodynamical (MHD) simulations of star cluster formation including gravity, turbulence, magnetic fields, stellar radiative heating and outflow feedback. We observe that the inclusion of…
Here, we review the basic concepts and applications of the phase-field-crystal (PFC) method, which is one of the latest simulation methodologies in materials science for problems, where atomic- and microscales are tightly coupled. The PFC…
There are rich emergent phase behaviors in non-equilibrium active systems. Flocking and clustering are two representative dynamic phases. The relationship between these two phases is still unclear. In the paper, we numerically investigate…
We determine the speed of a crystallisation (or more generally, a solidification) front as it advances into the uniform liquid phase after the system has been quenched into the crystalline region of the phase diagram. We calculate the front…
We present an experimental study on the collective behavior of macroscopic self-propelled particles that are externally excited by light. This property allows testing the system response to the excitation intensity in a very versatile…
The spatiotemporal dynamics in systems of active self-propelled particles is controlled by the propulsion mechanism in combination with various direct interactions, such as steric repulsion, hydrodynamics, and chemical fields. Yet, these…
Using a coarse molecular-dynamics (CMD) approach with an appropriate choice of coarse variable (order parameter), we map the underlying effective free-energy landscape for the melting of a crystalline solid. Implementation of this approach…
Via molecular dynamics simulations we have studied kinetics of vapor-"solid" phase transition in an active matter model in which self-propulsion is introduced via the well-known Vicsek rule. The overall density of the particles is chosen in…
Melting of two-dimensional (2D) equilibrium crystals, from superconducting vortex lattices to colloidal structures, is a complex phenomenon characterized by the sequential loss of positional and orientational order. Whereas melting…
Active fluids generate spontaneous, often chaotic mesoscale flows. Harnessing these flows to drive embedded soft materials into structures with controlled length scales and lifetimes is a key challenge at the interface between the fields of…
A new phase field crystal (PFC) type theory is presented, which accounts for the full spectrum of solid-liquid-vapor phase transitions within the framework of a single density order parameter. Its equilibrium properties show the most…
Motor proteins drive persistent motion and self-organisation of cytoskeletal filaments. However, state-of-the-art microscopy techniques and continuum modelling approaches focus on large length and time scales. Here, we perform…
Non-aligning self-propelled particles with purely repulsive excluded volume interactions undergo athermal motility-induced phase separation into a dilute gas and a dense cluster phase. Here, we use enhanced sampling computational methods…
We analyze motility-induced phase separation and bubbly phase separation in a two-dimensional lattice model of self-propelled particles. We compare systems where the dense (liquid) phase has slab and droplet geometries. We find that…
Active components incorporated in materials generate motion by inducing conformational changes in response to external fields. Magnetic fields are particularly interesting as they can actuate materials remotely. Millimeter-sized ferrofluid…
We numerically examine mixtures of circularly moving and passive disks as a function of density and active orbit radius. For low or intermediate densities and/or small orbit radii, the system can organize into a reversible partially phase…
Termites which are able to forage in the open can be often seen, in the field or in the lab: (i) wandering around, forming no observable pattern, or (ii) clustering themselves in a dense and almost immobile pack, or (iii) milling about in a…