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Related papers: More is less in unpercolated active solids

200 papers

Despite the diversity of materials designated as active matter, virtually all active systems undergo a form of dynamic arrest when crowding and activity compete, reminiscent of the dynamic arrest observed in colloidal and molecular fluids…

Soft Condensed Matter · Physics 2019-05-28 Ludovic Berthier , Elijah Flenner , Grzegorz Szamel

Active solids combine internal active driving with elasticity to realize states with nonequilibrium mechanics and autonomous motion. They are often studied in overdamped settings, e.g., in soft materials, and the role of inertia is less…

Soft Condensed Matter · Physics 2025-12-29 Siddhartha Sarkar , Biswarup Ash , Yueyang Wu , Nicholas Boechler , Suraj Shankar , Xiaoming Mao

We present experiments on the collective dynamics of macroscopic photoactive self-propelled particles subjected to spatiotemporally varying excitation. The particles move within an arena divided into two regions with different illumination…

Soft Condensed Matter · Physics 2026-03-19 Sára Lévay , Axel Katona , Raúl Cruz Hidalgo , Iker Zuriguel

Activity and autonomous motion are fundamental aspects of many living and engineering systems. Here, the scale of biological agents covers a wide range, from nanomotors, cytoskeleton, and cells, to insects, fish, birds, and people. Inspired…

Collective rotations are common in active matter, enhancing cohesion, transport, and mixing. They are typically attributed to chiral non-reciprocal dynamics due to intrinsic particle chirality, torque-generating interactions among units, or…

Soft Condensed Matter · Physics 2026-04-20 Maks Pečnik Bambič , Nuno A. M. Araújo , Giorgio Volpe

Active constituents burn fuel to sustain individual motion, giving rise to collective effects that are not seen in systems at thermal equilibrium, such as phase separation with purely repulsive interactions. There is a great potential in…

Statistical Mechanics · Physics 2024-02-16 Luke K. Davis , Karel Proesmans , Étienne Fodor

Self-powered motion in catalytic colloidal particles provides a compelling example of active matter, i.e. systems that engage in single-particle and collective behavior far from equilibrium. The long-time, long-distance behavior of such…

Soft Condensed Matter · Physics 2017-10-25 Young-Moo Byun , Paul E. Lammert , Yiying Hong , Ayusman Sen , Vincent H. Crespi

Two hallmarks of non-equilibrium systems, from active colloids to animal herds, are agents motility and nonreciprocal interactions. Their interplay creates feedback loops leading to complex spatiotemporal dynamics crucial to understand and…

Statistical Mechanics · Physics 2025-09-17 David Martin , Daniel Seara , Yael Avni , Michel Fruchart , Vincenzo Vitelli

Active matter research focuses on the emergent behavior among interacting self-propelled particles. Unification of seemingly disconnected paradigms -- active phase-separation of repulsive discs and collective motion of self-propelled rods…

Statistical Mechanics · Physics 2021-01-18 Robert Großmann , Igor S. Aranson , Fernando Peruani

Active matter has been intensely studied for its wealth of intriguing properties such as collective motion, motility-induced phase separation (MIPS), and giant fluctuations away from criticality. However, the precise connection of active…

Statistical Mechanics · Physics 2019-04-17 Juliane U. Klamser , Sebastian C. Kapfer , Werner Krauth

We investigate the steady-state and dynamical properties of a reciprocal many-body system consisting of self-propelled active particles with local alignment interactions that exists within a fan-shaped neighborhood of each particle. We find…

Statistical Mechanics · Physics 2022-07-07 Wei-chen Guo , Zuo Wang , Pei-fang Wu , Li-jun Lang , Bao-quan Ai , Liang He

Living systems are made of active materials with microscopic components that work together to perform macroscopic biological tasks. The breakdown of these collective functionalities leads to diseases, which, conversely, could be treated by…

Active matter exhibits various forms of non-equilibrium states in the absence of external forcing, including macroscopic steady-state currents. Such states are often too complex to be modelled from first principles and our understanding of…

Soft Condensed Matter · Physics 2020-09-17 Viktor Škultéty , Cesare Nardini , Joakim Stenhammar , Davide Marenduzzo , Alexander Morozov

Spontaneous directed motion, a hallmark of cell biology, is unusual in classical statistical physics. Here we study, using both numerical and analytical methods, organized motion in models of the cytoskeleton in which constituents are…

Soft Condensed Matter · Physics 2012-05-31 Shenshen Wang , Peter G. Wolynes

The motion of the structure determining components is highly collective, both in amorphous solids and in undercooled liquids. This has been deduced from experimental low temperature data in the tunneling regime as well as from the vanishing…

Disordered Systems and Neural Networks · Physics 2009-11-07 H. R. Schober

The complexity of condensed matter arises from emergent behaviors that cannot be understood by analyzing individual constituents in isolation. While traditional condensed-matter approaches-developed primarily for ideal crystalline…

Materials Science · Physics 2025-09-30 Elisabetta Nocerino

In this work, the mechanical response oF an one-dimensional active solid -- defined as a network of active stochastic particles interacting by nonlinear hard springs -- subject to an external deformation force, is numerically studied and…

Soft Condensed Matter · Physics 2022-09-28 Mario Sandoval

Active matter is not only indispensable to our understanding of diverse biological processes, but also provides a fertile ground for discovering novel physics. Many emergent properties impossible for equilibrium systems have been…

Soft Condensed Matter · Physics 2022-05-27 Thibault Bertrand , Chiu Fan Lee

Static nonreciprocal forces between particles generically drive persistent motion reminiscent of self-propulsion. Here, we demonstrate that reciprocity-breaking fluctuations about a reciprocal mean coupling strength are sufficient to…

Soft Condensed Matter · Physics 2023-04-18 Luca Cocconi , Henry Alston , Thibault Bertrand

Thanks to a constant energy input, active matter can self-assemble into phases with complex architectures and functionalities such as living clusters that dynamically form, reshape and break-up, which are forbidden in equilibrium materials…

Soft Condensed Matter · Physics 2019-03-27 Falko Schmidt , Benno Liebchen , Hartmut Löwen , Giovanni Volpe