软凝聚态物质
Colloidal gels, like many other soft and disordered solids derive their mechanical properties not only from the strength of interparticle attraction, but also from the symmetry of the forces that constrain particle motion. While non-central…
Accurate prediction of polymer properties is essential for materials design, but remains challenging due to data scarcity, diverse polymer representations, and the lack of systematic evaluation across modelling choices. Here, we present…
Curvature fundamentally alters the collective properties of soft, active, and biological materials. Here we study motility-induced phase separation (MIPS), a canonical non-equilibrium transition, and demonstrate that even weak and slowly…
The mechanical characteristics of fibers (of various materials), as well as of fiber bundles, are of primary importance for the design and the mechanical behavior of textiles, or of fibrous and composite materials. These characteristics are…
A constitutive relation between stress and strain relative to a reference state is the basic assumption of elasticity theory. However, in living matter, force generation is governed by motor molecule activity, which does not depend on…
We investigate the collective dynamics of active Brownian particles (ABPs) subjected to a steady two-dimensional four-roll-mill flow using numerical simulations. By varying the packing fraction ($\phi$), we uncover a novel flow-induced…
We present the phenomenology of the one dimensional non-reciprocal Cahn Hilliard model for varying non-reciprocity $(\alpha)$ and different boundary conditions. At small $\alpha$, a perturbed uniform state evolves to a defect laden…
The rheological behavior of polymer melts is strongly influenced by parameters such as chain length, chain stiffness, and architecture. In particular, shear thinning, characterized by a power-law decrease in shear viscosity with increasing…
Unstable systems of fluidized grains in a very-narrow vertical tube can auto-defluidize after some time, the settling particles forming either a glass- or crystal-like structure. We carried out experiments using different polymer spheres,…
The structure of polymer networks, defined by chain lengths and connectivity patterns, fundamentally influences their bulk properties. While existing polymer network models connect chain properties to emergent network behavior, they are…
Soft polymers are ubiquitous materials in nature and as engineering materials with properties varying from rate-independent to rate-dependent. Current fracture toughness measures are non-unique for rate-dependent soft materials for varying…
Turing instabilities of reaction-diffusion systems can only arise if the diffusivities of the chemical species are sufficiently different. This threshold is unphysical in most systems with $N=2$ diffusing species, forcing experimental…
The resistance of hydrogen-bond networks to ambient flow in water produces viscoelectric stresses and contributes to electrostrictive pressure. Within Onsager's nonequilibrium thermodynamic framework, a lattice-gas description of aqueous…
Cells exert traction forces on compliant substrates and can induce surface instabilities that appear as characteristic wrinkling patterns. Here, we develop a mechanical description of cell-induced wrinkling on soft substrates using a thin…
The relaxation of stochastic systems after sudden perturbations is constrained by speed limits and often reveals memory effects that hinder attempts to accelerate their dynamics. Here we demonstrate Kovacs-type nonmonotonic relaxation in…
Biological polymers, such as intrinsically disordered proteins, play a central role in cellular biology, including mediating phase separation and controlling activity of biological condensates. The physical properties and functions of…
Many physical systems involve two types of orientational order, which are coupled together. For example, ferroelectric nematic liquid crystals have coupled polar and nematic order, and tilted hexatic phases have coupled polar and hexatic…
Disordered solids distort and fail as particle contacts become unstable and rearrange under sufficiently large shear strains. Such instabilities can occur at different locations and, because of their proximity, can interact with one…
Dense suspensions of particles dispersed in liquids are central to industrial and geophysical processes and serve as model systems for out-of-equilibrium soft matter. At high particle concentrations, they exhibit stress-dependent rheology,…
Studying physical mechanisms and common geometric principles underlying known spherical packings is crucial for rational design of synthetic nanocontainers. Here we model the growth of small spherical shells containing n<72 identical…