Related papers: Polarity from the Bottom Up: A Computational Frame…
The dielectric properties of molecules or nanostructures are usually modified in a complex manner, when assembled into a condensed phase. We propose a first-principles method to compute polarizabilities of sub-entities of solids and…
A nanocomposite film containing highly polarizable inclusions in a fluid background is explored when an external electric field is applied perpendicular to the planar film. For small electric fields, the induced dipole moments of the…
We introduce and study in two dimensions a new class of dry, aligning, active matter that exhibits a direct transition to orientational order, without the phase-separation phenomenology usually observed in this context. Characterized by…
We study the role of hydrodynamic interactions in the collective behaviour of collections of microscopic active particles suspended in a fluid. We introduce a novel calculational framework that allows us to separate the different…
Chiral liquid crystals exhibit in-plane spontaneous polarizations, however in their smectic phase the primary order parameter is a tilt vector associated with molecular rotations around the long molecular axis parallel to the director. The…
The conventional wisdom is that liquids are completely disordered and lack non-trivial structure beyond nearest-neighbor distances. Recent observations have upended this view and demonstrated that the microstructure in liquids is…
This article reviews recent research on the collective dynamical behavior of colloids with dipolar or multipolar interactions. Indeed, whereas equilibrium structures and static self-assembly of such systems are now rather well understood,…
We investigate the emergence of orientational order among +1/2 disclinations in active nematic liquid crystals. Using a combination of theoretical and experimental methods, we show that +1/2 disclinations have short-range antiferromagnetic…
Self-assembly of particles with short-range attraction and long-range repulsion (SALR) interactions on a flat and on a spherical surface is compared. Molecular dynamics (MD) simulations are performed for the two systems having the same area…
Complex crystal structures are composed of multiple local environments, and how this type of order emerges spontaneously during crystal growth has yet to be fully understood. We study crystal growth across various structures and along…
Complex colloidal cluster morphologies are desirable for the fabrication of advanced materials, such as photonic crystals and meta-materials, and can be formed through evaporation-driven packing. By coupling lattice Boltzmann and discrete…
One of the basic concepts of modern physics with a long prehistory is a fluid, which means a substance that flows under an applied shear stress. In this sense fluids form a wide subset of the phases of matter that includes liquids, dense…
We prove existence of a shape and boundary condition independent thermodynamic limit for fluids and solids of identical particles with electric or magnetic dipole moments. Our result applies to fluids of hard core particles, to dipolar soft…
When interacting motile units self-organize into flocks, they realize one of the most robust ordered state found in nature. However, after twenty five years of intense research, the very mechanism controlling the ordering dynamics of both…
The exploration of cold polar molecules in different geometries is a rapidly developing experimental and theoretical pursuit. Recently, the implementation of optical lattices has enabled confinement in stacks of planes, the number of which…
Phase separation, crucial for spatially segregating biomolecules in cells, is well-understood in the simple case of a few components with pairwise interactions. Yet, biological cells challenge the simple picture in at least two ways: First,…
We develop scenarios for orientational ordering of an in-plane system of small flat octupolar molecules at the low-concentration limit, aiming towards nonlinear-optical (NLO) applications at room temperatures. The octupoles interact with…
We construct a boundary integral representation for the low-Reynolds-number flow in a channel in the presence of freely-suspended particles (or droplets) of arbitrary size and shape. We demonstrate that lubrication theory holds away from…
We review the impact of tetrahedral order on the macroscopic dynamics of bent-core liquid crystals. We discuss tetrahedral order comparing with other types of orientational order, like nematic, polar nematic, polar smectic, and active polar…
Active particles with a (magnetic) dipole moment are of interest for steering self-propelled motion, but also result in novel collective effects due to their dipole-dipole interaction. Here systems of active dipolar particles are studied…