Catalogue Search | MBRL
Are you sure you want to remove the book from the shelf?
{{itemTitle}}
113
result(s) for
"Aranson, Igor S"
Sort by:
Multi-scale organization in communicating active matter
The emergence of collective motion among interacting, self-propelled agents is a central paradigm in non-equilibrium physics. Examples of such active matter range from swimming bacteria and cytoskeletal motility assays to synthetic self-propelled colloids and swarming microrobots. Remarkably, the aggregation capabilities of many of these systems rely on a theme as fundamental as it is ubiquitous in nature: communication. Despite its eminent importance, the role of communication in the collective organization of active systems is not yet fully understood. Here we report on the multi-scale self-organization of interacting self-propelled agents that locally process information transmitted by chemical signals. We show that this communication capacity dramatically expands their ability to form complex structures, allowing them to self-organize through a series of collective dynamical states at multiple hierarchical levels. Our findings provide insights into the role of self-sustained signal processing for self-organization in biological systems and open routes to applications using chemically driven colloids or microrobots.
The communication in active systems plays an important role in their self-organization, yet the detail is not fully understood. Here, Ziepke et al. show the formation of complex structures at multiple scales amongst interactive agents that locally process information transmitted by chemical signals.
Journal Article
A particle-field approach bridges phase separation and collective motion in active matter
Whereas self-propelled hard discs undergo motility-induced phase separation, self-propelled rods exhibit a variety of nonequilibrium phenomena, including clustering, collective motion, and spatio-temporal chaos. In this work, we present a theoretical framework representing active particles by continuum fields. This concept combines the simplicity of alignment-based models, enabling analytical studies, and realistic models that incorporate the shape of self-propelled objects explicitly. By varying particle shape from circular to ellipsoidal, we show how nonequilibrium stresses acting among self-propelled rods destabilize motility-induced phase separation and facilitate orientational ordering, thereby connecting the realms of scalar and vectorial active matter. Though the interaction potential is strictly apolar, both, polar and nematic order may emerge and even coexist. Accordingly, the symmetry of ordered states is a dynamical property in active matter. The presented framework may represent various systems including bacterial colonies, cytoskeletal extracts, or shaken granular media.
Interacting self-propelled particles exhibit phase separation or collective motion depending on particle shape. A unified theory connecting these paradigms represents a major challenge in active matter, which the authors address here by modeling active particles as continuum fields.
Journal Article
Engineering bacterial vortex lattice via direct laser lithography
A suspension of swimming bacteria is possibly the simplest realization of active matter, i.e. a class of systems transducing stored energy into mechanical motion. Collective swimming of hydrodynamically interacting bacteria resembles turbulent flow. This seemingly chaotic motion can be rectified by a geometrical confinement. Here we report on self-organization of a concentrated suspension of motile bacteria
Bacillus subtilis
constrained by two-dimensional (2D) periodic arrays of microscopic vertical pillars. We show that bacteria self-organize into a lattice of hydrodynamically bound vortices with a long-range antiferromagnetic order controlled by the pillars’ spacing. The patterns attain their highest stability and nearly perfect order for the pillar spacing comparable with an intrinsic vortex size of an unconstrained bacterial turbulence. We demonstrate that the emergent antiferromagnetic order can be further manipulated and turned into a ferromagnetic state by introducing chiral pillars. This strategy can be used to control a wide class of active 2D systems.
Geometrically confined suspensions of swimming bacteria can self-organize into an ordered state. Here, the authors use tiny pillars to trigger organization of bacterial motion into a stable lattice of vortices with a long-range antiferromagnetic order and control vortex direction through pillar chirality.
Journal Article
Magnetic manipulation of self-assembled colloidal asters
A suspension of magnetic colloidal particles confined at a liquid–liquid interface and energized by an external periodic magnetic field self-assembles into star-shaped structures that can be magnetically manipulated to capture and transport smaller non-magnetic particles.
Self-assembled materials
1
,
2
,
3
,
4
must actively consume energy and remain out of equilibrium to support structural complexity and functional diversity
1
,
5
. Here we show that a magnetic colloidal suspension confined at the interface between two immiscible liquids and energized by an alternating magnetic field dynamically self-assembles into localized asters and arrays of asters, which exhibit locomotion and shape change. By controlling a small external magnetic field applied parallel to the interface, we show that asters can capture, transport, and position target microparticles. The ability to manipulate colloidal structures is crucial for the further development of self-assembled microrobots.
Journal Article
Living liquid crystals
Collective motion of self-propelled organisms or synthetic particles, often termed “active fluid,” has attracted enormous attention in the broad scientific community because of its fundamentally nonequilibrium nature. Energy input and interactions among the moving units and the medium lead to complex dynamics. Here, we introduce a class of active matter––living liquid crystals (LLCs)––that combines living swimming bacteria with a lyotropic liquid crystal. The physical properties of LLCs can be controlled by the amount of oxygen available to bacteria, by concentration of ingredients, or by temperature. Our studies reveal a wealth of intriguing dynamic phenomena, caused by the coupling between the activity-triggered flow and long-range orientational order of the medium. Among these are (i) nonlinear trajectories of bacterial motion guided by nonuniform director, (ii) local melting of the liquid crystal caused by the bacteria-produced shear flows, (iii) activity-triggered transition from a nonflowing uniform state into a flowing one-dimensional periodic pattern and its evolution into a turbulent array of topological defects, and (iv) birefringence-enabled visualization of microflow generated by the nanometers-thick bacterial flagella. Unlike their isotropic counterpart, the LLCs show collective dynamic effects at very low volume fraction of bacteria, on the order of 0.2%. Our work suggests an unorthodox design concept to control and manipulate the dynamic behavior of soft active matter and opens the door for potential biosensing and biomedical applications.
Journal Article
Active turbulence in a gas of self-assembled spinners
Colloidal particles subject to an external periodic forcing exhibit complex collective behavior and self-assembled patterns. A dispersion of magnetic microparticles confined at the air–liquid interface and energized by a uniform uniaxial alternating magnetic field exhibits dynamic arrays of self-assembled spinners rotating in either direction. Here, we report on experimental and simulation studies of active turbulence and transport in a gas of self-assembled spinners. We show that the spinners, emerging as a result of spontaneous symmetry breaking of clock/counterclockwise rotation of self-assembled particle chains, generate vigorous vortical flows at the interface. An ensemble of spinners exhibits chaotic dynamics due to self-generated advection flows. The same-chirality spinners (clockwise or counterclockwise) show a tendency to aggregate and form dynamic clusters. Emergent self-induced interface currents promote active diffusion that could be tuned by the parameters of the external excitation field. Furthermore, the erratic motion of spinners at the interface generates chaotic fluid flow reminiscent of 2D turbulence. Our work provides insight into fundamental aspects of collective transport in active spinner materials and yields rules for particle manipulation at the microscale.
Journal Article
Collisions of deformable cells lead to collective migration
Collective migration of eukaryotic cells plays a fundamental role in tissue growth, wound healing and immune response. The motion, arising spontaneously or in response to chemical and mechanical stimuli, is also important for understanding life-threatening pathologies, such as cancer and metastasis formation. We present a phase-field model to describe the movement of many self-organized, interacting cells. The model takes into account the main mechanisms of cell motility – acto-myosin dynamics, as well as substrate-mediated and cell-cell adhesion. It predicts that collective cell migration emerges spontaneously as a result of inelastic collisions between neighboring cells: collisions lead to a mutual alignment of the cell velocities and to the formation of coherently-moving multi-cellular clusters. Small cell-to-cell adhesion, in turn, reduces the propensity for large-scale collective migration, while higher adhesion leads to the formation of moving bands. Our study provides valuable insight into biological processes associated with collective cell motility.
Journal Article
Effects of Adhesion Dynamics and Substrate Compliance on the Shape and Motility of Crawling Cells
Computational modeling of eukaryotic cells moving on substrates is an extraordinarily complex task: many physical processes, such as actin polymerization, action of motors, formation of adhesive contacts concomitant with both substrate deformation and recruitment of actin etc., as well as regulatory pathways are intertwined. Moreover, highly nontrivial cell responses emerge when the substrate becomes deformable and/or heterogeneous. Here we extended a computational model for motile cell fragments, based on an earlier developed phase field approach, to account for explicit dynamics of adhesion site formation, as well as for substrate compliance via an effective elastic spring. Our model displays steady motion vs. stick-slip transitions with concomitant shape oscillations as a function of the actin protrusion rate, the substrate stiffness, and the rates of adhesion. Implementing a step in the substrate's elastic modulus, as well as periodic patterned surfaces exemplified by alternating stripes of high and low adhesiveness, we were able to reproduce the correct motility modes and shape phenomenology found experimentally. We also predict the following nontrivial behavior: the direction of motion of cells can switch from parallel to perpendicular to the stripes as a function of both the adhesion strength and the width ratio of adhesive to non-adhesive stripes.
Journal Article
Emergence of self-organized multivortex states in flocks of active rollers
Active matter, both synthetic and biological, demonstrates complex spatiotemporal self-organization and the emergence of collective behavior. A coherent rotational motion, the vortex phase, is of great interest because of its ability to orchestrate wellorganized motion of self-propelled particles over large distances. However, its generation without geometrical confinement has been a challenge. Here, we show by experiments and computational modeling that concentrated magnetic rollers self-organize into multivortex states in an unconfined environment. We find that the neighboring vortices more likely occur with the opposite sense of rotation. Our studies provide insights into the mechanism for the emergence of coherent collective motion on the macroscale from the coupling between microscale rotation and translation of individual active elements. These results may stimulate design strategies for self-assembled dynamic materials and microrobotics.
Journal Article