Video from Cristina Marchetti, University of California, Santa Barbara - “Active Topology”
Stanford University
APPLIED PHYSICS/PHYSICS COLLOQUIUM
Tuesday, February 16, 2021
4:30 p.m. via Zoom
https://stanford.zoom.us/j/99705123191
Email dmoreau [at] stanford.edu (dmoreau[at]stanford[dot]edu) for password.
Cristina Marchetti
University of California, Santa Barbara
“Active Topology”
Topology plays a key role in condensed matter physics, underlying much of our understanding of equilibrium matter in terms of defects in ordered media and topologically protected states. In active systems – collections of entities that consume energy to generate their own motion and forces – topological phenomena can take on new and surprising roles. I will describe some of these behaviors focusing on liquid-crystalline active matter in two dimensions, specifically active nematic liquid crystals, where defects become motile particles, drive spatio-temporally chaotic flows, and can themselves organize in emergent ordered states.