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Related papers: What exactly is 'active matter'?

200 papers

A remarkable feat of active matter physics is that systems as diverse as collections of self-propelled particles, nematics mixed with molecular motors, and interacting robots can all be described by symmetry-based continuum theories. These…

Soft Condensed Matter · Physics 2026-04-28 Jack Binysh , Guido Baardink , Jonas Veenstra , Corentin Coulais , Anton Souslov

A variety of computational models have been developed to describe active matter at different length and time scales. The diversity of the methods and the challenges in modeling active matter---ranging from molecular motors and cytoskeletal…

Soft Condensed Matter · Physics 2020-04-21 M Reza Shaebani , Adam Wysocki , Roland G Winkler , Gerhard Gompper , Heiko Rieger

Dense, active systems show active turbulence, a state characterised by flow fields that are chaotic, with continually changing velocity jets and swirls. Here we review our current understanding of active turbulence. The development is…

Soft Condensed Matter · Physics 2016-08-03 Sumesh P. Thampi , Julia M. Yeomans

Self-propulsion allows living systems to display unusual collective behavior. Unlike passive systems in thermal equilibrium, active matter systems are not constrained by conventional thermodynamic laws. A question arises however as to what…

Soft Condensed Matter · Physics 2015-03-18 Sho C. Takatori , John F. Brady

Active matter has played a pivotal role in advancing our understanding of non-equilibrium systems, leading to a fundamental shift in the study of biophysical phenomena. The foundation of active matter research is built on assumptions…

Soft Condensed Matter · Physics 2025-06-09 Varun Venkatesh , Niels de Graaf Sousa , Amin Doostmohammadi

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…

Active motion is a concept in complex systems theory and was successfully applied to various problems in nonlinear dynamics. Explicit studies for gravitational potentials were missing so far. We interpret the Friedmann equations with…

High Energy Physics - Theory · Physics 2011-08-11 Alexander Gluck , Helmuth Huffel , Sasa Ilijic , Gerald Kelnhofer

The state of a classical point-particle system may often be specified by giving the position and momentum for each constituent particle. For non-pointlike particles, the center-of-mass position may be augmented by an additional coordinate…

Statistical Mechanics · Physics 2023-08-02 Rahil N. Valani , David M. Paganin

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

The theoretical understanding of active matter, which is driven out of equilibrium by directed motion, is still fragmental and model oriented. Stochastic thermodynamics, on the other hand, is a comprehensive theoretical framework for driven…

Statistical Mechanics · Physics 2017-01-05 Thomas Speck

Active matter, comprising many active agents interacting and moving in fluids or more complex environments, is a commonly occurring state of matter in biological and physical systems. By its very nature active matter systems exist in…

Soft Condensed Matter · Physics 2021-02-08 Pierre Gaspard , Raymond Kapral

In this book chapter we describe recent applications of artificial intelligence and in particular machine learning to active matter systems. Active matter is composed of agents, or particles, that are capable of propelling themselves. While…

Soft Condensed Matter · Physics 2025-01-16 Hartmut Löwen , Benno Liebchen

In this perspective article, we discuss bacterial populations as a model system of active matter. It allows for the exploration and characterization of various phases of active matter and brings rich implications for both physics and…

Soft Condensed Matter · Physics 2026-04-16 Kazumasa A. Takeuchi , Daiki Nishiguchi

Active matter systems may be characterised by the conversion of energy into active motion, e.g. the self-propulsion of microorganisms. Artificial active colloids form models which exhibit essential properties of more complex biological…

Soft Condensed Matter · Physics 2021-07-19 Abraham Mauleon-Amieva , Michael P. Allen , C. Patrick Royall

The identification of local pressure in active matter systems remains a subject of considerable debate. Through theoretical calculations and extensive simulations of various active systems, we demonstrate that intrinsic pressure (defined in…

Soft Condensed Matter · Physics 2025-07-22 Zihao Sun , Longfei Li , Chuyun Wang , Jing Wang , Huaicheng Chen , Gao Wang , Liyu Liu , Fangfu Ye , Mingcheng Yang

Because of its nonequilibrium character, active matter in a steady state can drive engines that autonomously deliver work against a constant mechanical force or torque. As a generic model for such an engine, we consider systems that contain…

Statistical Mechanics · Physics 2019-11-15 Patrick Pietzonka , Étienne Fodor , Christoph Lohrmann , Michael E. Cates , Udo Seifert

In recent years the term \textit{active wetting} has gained some traction in works describing, analyzing and modeling a wide variety of wetting phenomena, for instance, in the contexts of biomolecular condensates, of cell layers or cell…

Soft Condensed Matter · Physics 2026-02-12 Uwe Thiele

It is common in the study of a dizzying array of soft matter systems to perform agent-based simulations of particles interacting via conservative and often short-ranged forces. In this context, well-established algorithms for efficiently…

Soft Condensed Matter · Physics 2021-03-19 Daniel M. Sussman

Biological systems exhibit large-scale self-organized dynamics and structures which enable organisms to perform the functions of life. The field of active matter strives to develop and understand microscopically-driven nonequilibrium…

Soft Condensed Matter · Physics 2016-02-11 Michael F. Hagan , Aparna Baskaran

Planktonic active matter represents an emergent system spanning different scales: individual, population and community; and complexity arising from sub-cellular and cellular to collective and ecosystem scale dynamics. This cross-scale…

Biological Physics · Physics 2023-01-24 Anupam Sengupta