软凝聚态物质
Cell shape changes, essential for processes such as motility or division, are controlled by the actomyosin cortex that actively remodels biological membranes. Their mechanisms can be deciphered in___vitro using biomimetic reconstituted…
Many suspensions contain particles with complex shapes that are affected not only by hydrodynamics, but also by thermal fluctuations, internal kinematic constraints and other long-range non-hydrodynamic interactions. Modeling these systems…
Biological functionality of cellular aggregates is largely influenced by the activity and displacements of individual constituent cells. From a theoretical perspective this activity can be characterized by hydrodynamic transport…
As the study of active matter has developed into one of the most rapidly growing subfields of condensed matter physics, more and more kinds of physical systems have been included in this framework. While the word 'active' is often thought…
Urea is widely used as a protein denaturant. However, the potential of urea to form self-assembled structures at higher concentrations and the influence of its self-interactions on water structure and dynamics remains elusive. This open…
As a liquid approaches the glass state, its dynamics slows down rapidly, by a few orders of magnitude in a very small temperature range. In the case of light elements and small molecules containing hydrogen (e.g., water), such a process can…
We study the hydrodynamic drag force exerted on a sphere in a static anisotropic porous medium. This problem is analysed using the Brinkman-Debye-Bueche equations with an axisymmetric shielding (or permeability) tensor. Using the exact…
In quasi-two-dimensional experiments with photoelastic particles confined to an annular region, an intruder constrained to move in a circular path halfway between the annular walls experiences stick-slip dynamics. We discuss the response of…
Exploring nonminimal-rank quasicrystals, which have symmetries that can be found in both periodic and aperiodic crystals, often provides new insight into the physical nature of aperiodic long-range order in models that are easier to treat.…
Understanding the dynamic adsorption of colloidal particles at fluid interfaces is essential for applications ranging from emulsion stabilization to interfacial assembly of functional materials. Adsorption dynamics is often described…
We investigate a two-dimensional polydisperse suspension of self-propelled semiflexible filaments and reveal a collective wrapping mechanism that is absent in monodisperse systems. At intermediate activity levels, long filaments coil around…
Nonequilibrium molecular dynamics simulations are used to study the deformation behavior of disperse polymer melts by tracking test chains of length N = Mw, the weight average molecular weight, in melts of varying dispersity. At high strain…
We study experimentally how the double-twist (DT) configuration of cylindrically confined lyotropic chromonic liquid crystals (LCLCs) responds to axial magnetic fields. Our director field model unveils the energetics behind the magnetic…
Understanding the collective actuation of microscopic structures driven by external fields can lead to the development of next-generation autonomous machines. With this goal in mind, we investigated light-induced collective motion of…
Morphoelasticity represents a foundational theory for tracing back growth, remodelling, and morphogenesis, yet crucial challenges persist. A unified growth law -- independent of a priori assumptions about constitutive relations or specified…
We formulate a multiscale model of adhesive layers undergoing impurity-dependent cohesive fracture. The model contemplates three scales: i) at the atomic scale, fracture is controlled by interatomic separation and the thermodynamics of…
The Random First Order Transition (RFOT) theory of glasses provides a unified framework for explaining the observed correlations of the kinetic and thermodynamic behaviors of glass-forming liquids having a wide variety of chemical…
We study the hydrodynamic behavior of two-dimensional chiral dry Malthusian flocks; that is, chiral polar-ordered active matter with neither number nor momentum conservation. We show that, in the absence of fluctuations, such systems…
The translation and shape deformations of a passive viscous Newtonian droplet immersed in an active nematic liquid crystal under circular confinement are analyzed using a linear stability analysis. We focus on the case of a sharply aligned…
Many active matter systems consist of different particle types that interact via nonreciprocal couplings. Such nonreciprocal couplings can lead to the spontaneous emergence of time-dependent states that break parity-time symmetry. On the…