Topological structure and dynamics of three-dimensional active nematics.

Autor: Duclos G; Department of Physics, Brandeis University, Waltham, MA 02453, USA., Adkins R; Department of Physics, University of California, Santa Barbara, CA 93111, USA., Banerjee D; Max Planck Institute for Dynamics and Self-Organization, 37077 Göttingen, Germany.; Instituut-Lorentz, Universiteit Leiden, 2300 RA Leiden, Netherlands., Peterson MSE; Department of Physics, Brandeis University, Waltham, MA 02453, USA., Varghese M; Department of Physics, Brandeis University, Waltham, MA 02453, USA., Kolvin I; Department of Physics, University of California, Santa Barbara, CA 93111, USA., Baskaran A; Department of Physics, Brandeis University, Waltham, MA 02453, USA., Pelcovits RA; Department of Physics, Brown University, Providence, RI 02912, USA., Powers TR; School of Engineering, Brown University, Providence, RI 02912, USA.; Department of Physics, Brown University, Providence, RI 02912, USA., Baskaran A; Department of Physics, Brandeis University, Waltham, MA 02453, USA., Toschi F; Department of Applied Physics, Eindhoven University of Technology, 5600 MB Eindhoven, Netherlands.; Instituto per le Applicazioni del Calcolo CNR, 00185 Rome, Italy., Hagan MF; Department of Physics, Brandeis University, Waltham, MA 02453, USA., Streichan SJ; Department of Physics, University of California, Santa Barbara, CA 93111, USA., Vitelli V; James Frank Institute and Department of Physics, The University of Chicago, Chicago, IL 60637, USA., Beller DA; Department of Physics, University of California, Merced, CA 95343, USA. dbeller@ucmerced.edu zdogic@ucsb.edu., Dogic Z; Department of Physics, Brandeis University, Waltham, MA 02453, USA. dbeller@ucmerced.edu zdogic@ucsb.edu.; Department of Physics, University of California, Santa Barbara, CA 93111, USA.
Jazyk: angličtina
Zdroj: Science (New York, N.Y.) [Science] 2020 Mar 06; Vol. 367 (6482), pp. 1120-1124.
DOI: 10.1126/science.aaz4547
Abstrakt: Topological structures are effective descriptors of the nonequilibrium dynamics of diverse many-body systems. For example, motile, point-like topological defects capture the salient features of two-dimensional active liquid crystals composed of energy-consuming anisotropic units. We dispersed force-generating microtubule bundles in a passive colloidal liquid crystal to form a three-dimensional active nematic. Light-sheet microscopy revealed the temporal evolution of the millimeter-scale structure of these active nematics with single-bundle resolution. The primary topological excitations are extended, charge-neutral disclination loops that undergo complex dynamics and recombination events. Our work suggests a framework for analyzing the nonequilibrium dynamics of bulk anisotropic systems as diverse as driven complex fluids, active metamaterials, biological tissues, and collections of robots or organisms.
(Copyright © 2020 The Authors, some rights reserved; exclusive licensee American Association for the Advancement of Science. No claim to original U.S. Government Works.)
Databáze: MEDLINE
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