Related papers: Nonequilibrium Phenomena in Liquid Crystals
In many interesting physical settings, such as the vulcanization of rubber, the introduction of permanent random constraints between the constituents of a homogeneous fluid can cause a phase transition to a random solid state. In this…
We comment on some recent, yet unpublished results concerning instabilities in complex systems and their applications. In particular, we briefly describe main observations during extensive computer simulations of two lattice nonequilibrium…
The deformation and flow of disordered solids, such as metallic glasses and concentrated emulsions, involves swift localized rearrangements of particles that induce a long-range deformation field. To describe these heterogeneous processes,…
Liquid crystals are synthetic and biological viscoelastic anisotropic soft matter materials that combine liquid fluidity with crystal anisotropy and find use in optical devices, sensor/actuators, lubrication, super-fibers. Frequently…
Disordered hyperuniform structures are an exotic state of matter having vanishing long-wavelength density fluctuations similar to perfect crystals but without long-range order. Although its importance in materials science has been brought…
Many systems in nature exhibit transitions between fluid-like states and solid-like states, or "jamming transitions". There is a strong theoretical foundation for understanding equilibrium phase transitions that involve solidification, or…
Dynamical heterogeneities in a colloidal fluid close to gelation are studied by means of computer simulations. A clear distinction between some fast particles and the rest, slow ones, is observed, yielding a picture of the gel composed by…
Chaotic transitions in inertial fluids typically proceed through a direct energy cascade from large to small scales. In contrast, active systems, composed of self propelled units, inject energy at microscopic scales and therefore exhibit an…
The possibility for the occurrence in crystals of a phenomenon, resembling turbulence, is discussed. This phenomenon, called {\it heterophase turbulence}, is manifested by the fluctuational appearance inside a crystalline sample of…
We study the liquid-solid transition in a collection of interacting particles moving through a dissipative medium under the action of a constant, spatially uniform external force, e.g. a charge-stabilized suspension in a fluidized bed or a…
The emergence of long-range spatiotemporal order from intrinsic chaos is a central challenge in far-from-equilibrium physics. In active fluids, such as cytoskeletal networks driving cellular motion, self-generated flows typically produce…
A complex (dusty) plasma system is well known as a paradigmatic model for studying the kinetics of solid-liquid phase transitions in inactive condensed matter. At the same time, under certain conditions a complex plasma system can also…
We here present two simplified models aimed at describing the long-term, irregular behaviours observed in the rheological response of certain complex fluids, such as periodic oscillations or chaotic-like variations. Both models exploit the…
The complex physics of self-assembly in colloidal crystals on deformable interfaces and surfaces poses interesting possibilities for the designability and synthesis of next-generation metamaterials. The goal of this article is to…
We present nonlinear dynamic equations for nematic and smectic $A$ liquid crystals in the presence of an alternating electric field and explain their derivation in detail. The local electric field acting in any liquid-crystalline system is…
We introduce a phenomenological theory for a new class of soft active fluids, with the ability to synchronise. Our theoretical framework describes the macroscopic behaviour of a collection of interacting anisotropic elements with cyclic…
The persistent problem posed by the glass transition is to develop a general atomic level description of a solidification process that is not associated with any change in the symmetry of the atomic structure. The answer proposed in this…
Droplets abound in nature and technology. In general, they are multicomponent, and, when out of equilibrium, with gradients in concentration, implying flow and mass transport. Moreover, phase transitions can occur, with either evaporation,…
Patterns are quotidian in nature. Distinct multiscale patterns are generally a consequence of nonequilibrium dynamical processes associated with mechanical or hydrodynamic instabilities. In this thesis, I report experimental investigations…
The most accepted origin for the water anomalous behavior is the phase transition between two liquids (LLPT) in the supercooled regime connected to the glassy first order phase transition at lower temperatures. Two length scales potentials…