Orientational order of motile defects in active nematics.
Orientational order of motile defects in active nematics.
复制标题
DOI：
10.1038/nmat4387
复制
发表时间：
2015-11
期刊：
影响因子：
41.2
通讯作者：
Dogic Z
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
DeCamp SJ;Redner GS;Baskaran A;Hagan MF;Dogic Z
对平衡液晶的研究使人们对有序材料的本质有了基本的认识，并在许多实际应用中得到了应用，如显示技术。活性向列相是一类根本不同的液晶，它们被组成棒状粒子的自主运动驱离平衡。这种内部产生的活动为拓扑缺陷的不断创造和消灭提供了动力，导致了复杂的流动，其混乱的动力学似乎破坏了长期秩序。在这里，我们在主动向列学的实验和计算实现中研究这些动力学。通过跟踪基于微管的活性向列相中数千个厘米距离的缺陷，我们识别出一个非平衡相，其特征是跨系统的缺陷取向顺序。尽管缺陷的生命周期只有几秒钟，但这个紧急订单仍会持续数小时。在粗晶模拟中也观察到了类似的动力学结构，这表明缺陷有序相是活性向列相的一般特征。
The study of equilibrium liquid crystals has led to fundamental insights into the nature of ordered materials, as well as many practical applications such as display technologies. Active nematics are a fundamentally different class of liquid crystals, which are driven away from equilibrium by the autonomous motion of their constituent rodlike particles. This internally-generated activity powers the continuous creation and annihilation of topological defects, leading to complex streaming flows whose chaotic dynamics appear to destroy long-range order. Here, we study these dynamics in experimental and computational realizations of active nematics. By tracking thousands of defects over centimeter distances in microtubule-based active nematics, we identify a non-equilibrium phase characterized by system-spanning orientational order of defects. This emergent order persists over hours despite defect lifetimes of only seconds. Similar dynamical structures are observed in coarse-grained simulations, suggesting that defect-ordered phases are a generic feature of active nematics.