软凝聚态物质
Euler buckling epitomises mechanical instabilities: An inextensible straight elastic line buckles under compression when the compressive force reaches a critical value $F_\ast>0$. Here, we extend this classical, planar instability to the…
Charge transport in porous electrodes is foundational for modern energy storage technologies like supercapacitors, fuel cells, and batteries. Supercapacitors in particular rely solely on storing energy in charged pores. Here, we simulate…
When cell sheets fold during development, their apical or basal surfaces constrict and cell shapes approach the geometric singularity in which these surfaces vanish. Here, we reveal the mechanical consequences of this geometric singularity…
Indentation tests are classical tools to determine material properties. For biological samples such as cysts of cells, however, the observed force-displacement relation cannot be expected to follow predictions for simple materials. Here, by…
Buckling instabilities driven by tissue growth underpin key developmental events such as the folding of the brain. Tissue growth is disordered due to cell-to-cell variability, but the effects of this variability on buckling are unknown.…
The folding of cellular monolayers pervades embryonic development and disease. It results from stresses out of the plane of the tissue, often caused by cell shape changes including cell wedging via apical constriction. These local cellular…
Elastic objects across a wide range of scales deform under local changes of their intrinsic properties, yet the shapes are ${\it glocal}$, set by a complicated balance between local properties and global geometric constraints. Here, we…
The collective motion of arrays of cilia - tiny, hairlike protrusions - drives the locomotion of numerous microorganisms, enabling multimodal motion and autonomous switching between gaits to navigate complex environments. To endow…
Active matter systems comprise self-propelled particles that move on a substrate while leaving chemical trails that influence other particles through chemotaxis (e.g., slime-depositing bacteria). Orientational chemotaxis manifests as a…
We introduce a high-throughput platform that enables simultaneous, parallel testing of six bistable beams via programmable motion of a rotating disk. By prescribing harmonic angular dynamics, the platform explores the phase space of angular…
Phase separation in confined environments is a fundamental process underlying geological flows, porous filtration, emulsions, and intracellular organization. Yet, how confinement and activity jointly govern coarsening kinetics and…
The paper describes the coupling of the MercuryDPM discrete element method (DEM) code and the implementation of the kernel-independent fast multipole method (KIFMM). The combined simulation framework allows addressing the large class of…
We report a numerical study addressing the dynamics of compound vesicles confined in a channel under shear flow. The system comprises a smaller vesicle embedded within a larger one and can be used to mimic, for example, leukocytes or…
Colloidal gels gradually evolve as their structures reorganize, a process known as aging. Understanding this behavior is essential for fundamental science and practical applications such as drug delivery and tissue engineering. This study…
When sheared, granular media experience localized plastic events known as shear transformations which generate anisotropic internal stresses. Under strong confining pressure, the response of granular media to local force multipoles is…
We highlight the importance of long-range correlations in active matter systems of self-propelling particles even in the absence of global order or steric interactions by demonstrating that long-range density fluctuations are reduced. We…
The paper presents a two-phase hydrodynamic model for the numerical simulation of collective motion in a thin layer of active colloids containing spherical microswimmers. The model accounts for three fundamental mechanisms governing the…
This study presents and calibrates a Discrete Element Method (DEM) contact model for wet granular materials in the pendular regime. The model extends a previously calibrated dry contact formulation by incorporating liquid bridges that…
The importance of molecular-scale forces in sculpting biological form and function has been acknowledged for more than a century. Accounting for forces in biology is a problem that lies at the intersection of soft condensed matter physics,…
Motile droplets using Marangoni convection are attracting attention for their potential as cell-mimicking small robots. However, the motion of droplets relative to the internal and external environments that generate Marangoni convection…