软凝聚态物质
Homing and navigation are fundamental behaviors in biological systems that enable agents to reliably reach a target under uncertainty. We present a Reinforcement Learning (RL) framework to model adaptive homing in continuous two-dimensional…
In this paper, we present a coarse-grained model of DNA based on the soft ellipsoid contact potential (ECP) to evaluate the base pairing interaction properly. We extend the ellipsoid contact like potential model (ECP), suitably modified and…
Dense suspensions of deformable particles can exhibit rich nonequilibrium dynamics arising from complex flow-structure coupling. Using a multi-phase field model, we show that steady shear drives an initially disordered, dense, soft…
This article is a reflection on the themes of the Faraday Discussion meeting on "Biological and bio-inspired optics" held from 20 to 22 July 2020. It is a personal perspective on the nature of this field as a broad and interdisciplinary…
The structure and spatial statistical properties of amorphous ellipsoid assemblies have profound scientific and industrial significance in many systems, from cell assays to granular materials. This paper uses a fundamental theoretical…
Spatially varying flow laws have been identified in dry granular flow, yet their applicability to unjammed suspensions remains unclear. This study demonstrates that the quasistatic suspension flow combines dry granular rheology with…
We introduce a coarse-grained stochastic network dynamics (CGSND) framework for modeling deformation and rupture in polymer networks. The method replaces explicit molecular dynamics (MD) or coarse-grained molecular dynamics (CGMD) with…
Computer simulations of yielding of glasses under shear have typically been performed under constant volume, strain controlled protocols. However, volumetric effects, such as the dilatancy associated with plastic rearrangements, and the…
Fast prediction of suspension rheology is fundamental for optimizing process efficiency and performance in numerous industrial settings. However, traditional simulations are computationally demanding due to explicit evaluation of contact…
Wave propagation in complex media is a universal problem spanning optics, acoustics, mechanics, and condensed matter physics. While disorder usually causes strong scattering, recent theory predicts that a special class of correlated…
We develop an energy-landscape based elasto-plastic model to understand the behaviour of amorphous solids under uniform and cyclic shear. Amorphous solids are modeled as being composed of mesoscopic sub-volumes, each of which may occupy…
Controlling the deposition of filaments, such as nanowires and nanotubes, from evaporating droplets is critical for the performance of emerging technologies like flexible sensors and printed electronics. The final deposit morphology…
Two dimensional (2D) colloids exhibit intriguing phase behaviors distinct from those in three dimensions, as well as dynamic heterogeneity reminiscent of glass-forming liquids. Here, using discontinuous molecular dynamics simulations, we…
Alkali salt-doped ionic liquids are emerging as promising electrolyte systems for energy applications, owing to their excellent interfacial stability. To address their limited ionic conductivity, various strategies have been proposed,…
Holographic molecular binding assays detect macromolecules binding to colloidal probe beads by monitoring nanometer-scale changes in the beads' diameters with holographic microscopy. Measured changes are interpreted with Maxwell Garnett…
An acoustic standing wave acts as a lattice of evenly spaced potential energy wells for sub-wavelength-scale objects. Trapped particles interact with each other by exchanging waves that they scatter from the standing wave. Unless the…
Active matter refers to a broad class of non-equilibrium systems where energy is continuously injected at the level of individual ``particles". These systems exhibit emergent collective behaviors that have no direct thermal-equilibrium…
Confinement influences fluid properties. We show, employing molecular dynamics simulations with explicit solvents, that slit confinement drives a first-order transition for a small nanoparticle between staying at the slit center and binding…
An elastic spring network is an example of evolvable matter. It can be pruned to couple separated pairs of nodes so that when a strain is applied to one of them, the other responds either in-phase or out-of-phase. This produces two pruned…
We theoretically and numerically investigate the steady flow of two-dimensional granular materials in a rotating drum using the discrete element method and a continuum model with the $\mu(I)$-rheology. The velocity fields obtained from both…