软凝聚态物质
Active turbulence arises typically in systems ranging from microorganisms and biopolymers to synthetic colloids, where chaotic flows are closely associated with motile topological defects in collectively swarming suspensions. Here, we…
Autonomous and driven transport in chiral active fluids have been shown to exhibit features that cannot be accommodated within the classical formulation of fluid mechanics, due to the role of odd viscosity. We generalize the theory of…
Unentangled wormlike micelle solutions relax stress through a dynamic interplay of reversible scission and intrachain relaxation involving a hierarchy of molecular timescales whose relationship to linear viscoelastic response remains…
We study the dynamics of gyrotactic microswimmers suspended in homogeneous and isotropic turbulence by using direct numerical simulations (DNS). The swimmers are characterized by three non-dimensional parameters: their aspect ratio…
Architected materials can exhibit remarkable combinations of stiffness, strength, and toughness, yet their application is currently limited by an incomplete understanding of how cracks initiate and propagate through their discrete…
The genome contains genetic information essential for cell's life. The genome's spatial organization inside the cell nucleus is critical for its proper function including gene regulation. The two major genomic compartments -- euchromatin…
Magnetotactic bacteria (MTB) are endowed with an exquisite orientation mechanism allowing them to swim along the geomagnetic field lines. This mechanism consists of a chain of bio-synthesized magnetic nano-crystals that endow MTB with a…
Orientation and relaxation dynamics of rod-like colloids under flow govern the optical and mechanical properties of many emerging soft materials. In polydisperse suspensions, particles of different lengths exhibit distinct rotational…
Laddering is the propagation of a topological defect in an everyday-life material: weft knitted fabrics, following a broken thread or a dropped stitch. What is a minor frustration when damaging a pair of tights is a more serious issue for…
Soft composite solids, comprising discrete inclusions embedded within a compliant matrix, are emerging candidates for engineering synthetic tissues and soft robotic materials. Current strategies for controlling their nonlinear mechanics,…
The thermosensitive behavior of microgel particles suspended in solvents, i.e. their temperature-dependent swelling properties, has triggered ongoing interest in industry and academia over the past forty years. The most-studied polymer is…
Surface creasing in swelling polymer gels is commonly attributed to compressive strain or interlayer mismatch, yet its general control remains unclear. Here we show that solvent polymerization degree $N_{\rm s}$ provides an independent…
In this work, we investigate the unjamming transition in a three-dimensional granular system composed of frictional spheres, in which the packing fraction is systematically reduced by random particle extractions. Using Discrete Element…
multisphere is an open-source Python package for generating multi-sphere representations of complex particles for use in DEM simulations. It reconstructs triangulated surface meshes and voxelized volumes as sets of intersecting spheres and…
The nonequilibrium structural and dynamical properties of semiflexible active polar polymers subject to linear flow are studied by numerical simulations. Filaments are confined in two dimensions and immersed in a fluid described by the…
We develop a kinetic-theory framework to investigate the steady rheology of a dilute gas interacting via a repulsive potential under uniform shear flow. Starting from the Boltzmann equation with a restitution coefficient that depends on the…
Cellular organization and mechanotransduction pathways are crucial regulators of tissue morphogenesis, whereas their dysregulation contributes to pathologies. Overactive myofibroblasts are key drivers of fibrosis, yet how their presence…
Kirigami, the art of paper cutting, has been widely used in the modern design of mechanical metamaterials. In recent years, many kirigami-based metamaterials have been designed based on different planar tiling patterns and applied to…
Biological microswimmers alter their motility in complex corner geometries, facilitating their survival. However, the dynamical features of low-Reynolds-number swimming at corners remain undefined. Here, we use active droplet microswimmers…
Knitted fabrics exemplify a broad class of architected materials capable of large deformations, enabling shape morphing, mechanical biocompatibility, and embedded multifunctionality without material damage. Although geometric nonlinearity…