Related papers: Defects in vibrated monolayers of equilateral tria…
We analyse liquid-crystalline ordering in vertically vibrated monolayers of cylinders confined in a circular cavity. Short cylinders form tetratic arrangements with C$_4$ symmetry. This symmetry, which is incompatible with the geometry of…
Liquid-crystalline ordering in vertically vibrated granular monolayers confined in annuli of different sizes is examined. The annuli consist of circular cavities with a central circular obstruction. In the absence of the central obstruction…
When colloidal particles are vertically confined to a gap of between 1.3-1.6 particle diameters, they pack into buckled crystals of particles in either "up" or "down" states. Neighboring particles tend to occupy opposite states, analogous…
We investigate the ordering properties of vertically-vibrated monolayers of granular cylinders in a circular container at high packing fraction. In line with previous works by other groups, we identify liquid-crystalline ordering behaviour…
Many cell types spontaneously order like nematic liquid crystals, and, as such, they form topological defects. While defects with topological charge $\pm$1/2 are common in cell monolayers, the defects with charge $\pm$1, relevant in the…
Vibrated monolayers of granular particles confined into horizontal cavities form a variety of fluid patterns with orientational order that resemble equilibrium liquid-crystal phases. In some cases one can identify nematic and smectic…
Disclinations, first observed in mesomorphic phases, are relevant to a number of ill-ordered condensed matter media, with continuous symmetries or frustrated order. They also appear in polycrystals at the edges of grain boundaries. They are…
The plastic deformation of crystalline materials can be understood by considering their structural defects such as disclinations and dislocations. Although glasses are also solids, their structure resembles closely the one of a liquid and…
We study the statistical mechanics and dynamics of crystalline films with a fixed internal connectivity on a random substrate. Defect free triangular lattices exhibit a sharp transition to a low temperature glassy phase with anomalous…
Epithelial monolayers are a central building block of complex organisms. Topological defects have emerged as important elements for single cell behavior in flat epithelia. Here we theoretically study such defects in a three-dimensional…
We describe a series of experiments and computer simulations on vibrated granular media in a geometry chosen to eliminate gravitationally induced settling. The system consists of a collection of identical spherical particles on a horizontal…
A simple model of a vibrated granular monolayer is studied. It consists of inelastic hard spheres confined between two parallel hard plates separated a distance smaller than twice the diameter of the particles. Both walls are elastic and…
We propose a general formalism to characterize orientational frustration of smectic liquid crystals in confinement by interpreting the emerging networks of grain boundaries as objects with a topological charge. In a formal idealization,…
Topological defects are singularities within a field that cannot be removed by continuous transformations. The definition of these irregularities requires an ordered reference configuration, calling into question whether they exist in…
Twisted bilayers of two-dimensional materials have emerged as a highly tunable platform for studying broken symmetry phases. While most interest has been focused on emergent states in systems whose constituent monolayers do not feature…
We study statistical properties of vibrated granular monolayers using molecular dynamics simulations. We show that at high excitation strengths, the system is in a gas state, particle motion is isotropic, and the velocity distributions are…
We investigate the influence of curvature and topology on crystalline wrinkling patterns in generic elastic bilayers. Our numerical analysis predicts that the total number of defects created by adiabatic compression exhibits universal…
We study experimentally the nonequilibrium phase behaviour of a horizontal monolayer of macroscopic rods. The motion of the rods in two dimensions is driven by vibrations in the vertical direction. Aside from the control variables of…
Steady state dynamics of clustering, long range order, and inelastic collapse are experimentally observed in vertically shaken granular monolayers. At large vibration amplitudes, particle correlations show only short range order like…
Photonic modes exhibiting a polarization winding akin to a vortex possess an integer topological charge. Lasing with topological charge 1 or 2 can be realized in periodic lattices of up to six-fold rotational symmetry. Higher order charges…