软凝聚态物质
A model of dissipative micromagnetics coupled to (visco-)elasticity is explored, following the procedures of the Ericksen-Leslie theory of nematic liquid crystals allowing for angular momentum due to magnetization. An outcome is the…
Heterogeneous nucleation is a process wherein extrinsic impurities facilitate freezing by lowering nucleation barriers and constitutes the dominant mechanism for crystallization in most systems. Classical nucleation theory (\textsc{Cnt})…
Our previous numerical simulation [C.-E. Tsai et al., Physical Review Research \textbf{6}, 023065 (2024)] has shown that, for soft granular particles under quasistatic shearing, incorporating a speed-dependent friction is essential to…
We investigate the effects of heterogeneous (spatially varying) activity in a hydrodynamical model for dense bacterial suspensions, confining ourselves to experimentally realizable, simple, quenched, activity patterns. We show that the…
Understanding and ultimately controlling the transformations and properties of nanoscale systems, from proteins to synthetic nanomaterial assemblies, is limited by the inability to uncover their dynamics on their characteristic length and…
We derive from first principles a three-dimensional theory of self-propelled particle swarming in a viscous fluid environment. Our model predicts emergent collective behavior that depends critically on fluid opacity, mechanism of…
Self-encapsulated droplets floating at an oil--air interface undergo striking shape changes during evaporation, including flattening and localized loss of membrane tension leading to crumpling and wrinkling. Here we combine experiments,…
We study the deformation of a two-dimensional viscous droplet in simple shear in the presence of odd viscosity. We derive an analytical solution for the droplet shape and surrounding flow field within the framework of odd Stokes flow,…
Spider silk is a remarkable biomaterial with exceptional stiffness, strength, and toughness stemming from a unique microstructure. While recent studies show that silk fibers exhibit plasticity, hysteresis, and recovery under cyclic loading,…
We present a framework for mechanochemical self-organization in active solids where elasticity is reciprocally coupled to Hopf oscillators. Our model reveals a rich landscape of symmetry-protected phases, identified through amplitude…
Dense granular and suspension flows under inhomogeneous shear exhibit persistent particle motion in regions where the local yield criterion is subcritical, an apparent breakdown of locality that has motivated the development of a generation…
The existence and origin of the ductile to brittle transition in non-Brownian suspensions and pastes is underexplored despite the ubiquity of such materials in practical applications. We demonstrate the phenomenon in candies of sugar…
The fluctuations of ions in polar solvents remain poorly understood theoretically due to the complex coupling between ionic motion and solvent polarization. Indeed, while all-atom resolution can be achieved in numerical simulations,…
We show that chiral order in two-dimensional nonreciprocal flocking mixtures is generically unstable. Combining large-scale agent-based simulations with a coarse-grained continuum description, we demonstrate that rotating chiral states…
The in-plane dielectric constant of nanoconfined water has attracted growing interest over the last years. Nevertheless, this magnitude is not well-defined at the nanoscale due to its dependence on the arbitrary choice of water width. We…
In this work, we investigate the elastic properties of deflated vesicles and their shape dynamics in uniaxial extensional flow. By analysing the Helfrich bending energy and viscous flow stresses in the limit of highly elongated shapes, we…
Collagen fibrils are the building block of many biological tissues, which viability depend on the fibrils properties. Altered properties of collagen fibrils are central to the appearance of many diseases, while physiological or native…
Two ternary liquid crystalline mixtures are formulated and investigated by differential scanning calorimetry, polarizing optical microscopy, X-ray diffraction, and broadband dielectric spectroscopy. Paraelectric smectic A*, ferroelectric…
All solids, whether crystalline or disordered, support elastic wave propagation with a linear dispersion relation in the long-wavelength limit. These waves, corresponding to low-frequency phonons, feature a vibrational density of states…
Isolated microscopic magnetic particles are used to induce local perturbations in dense colloidal suspensions by rotating an external magnet. Confocal microscopy enables tracking of both the magnetic probe particle and adjacent colloidal…