Driven Soft Matter: from Superconducting Vortices to Living Cells

马切蒂技术总结：该奖项支持凝聚态物质和生物系统的理论研究和教育，这些凝聚态物质和生物系统由外部或内部能源保持不平衡，并展示出集体行为与个体成分的行为本质上不同的紧急结构。这项研究有两个主要推动力。PI将使用解析和数值方法来分析活性物质的结构和机械性能；生物丝和马达蛋白质以及自行式(包括生物和非生物)实体的集合。这项研究的一个具体目标是了解物理机制和生物化学或其他过程之间在调节活性物质的大规模组织和功能方面的相互作用。PI还将研究被驱动的扩展介质的粗粒模型，这些介质由于无序和驱动的相互作用而“塑性变形”。实验实现包括超导体中的涡旋晶格和固体中的裂纹扩展。粗粒模型将通过场理论方法和数值模拟方法在有限维内进行研究，以与实验相联系。这有助于对受驱动无序系统的复杂非平衡动力学进行统一分类。这对这项研究有更广泛的影响。这是将非平衡统计力学的传统分析从物理学中拿出来的一个例子，并发现当应用于生命系统时，该理论及其适用的学科都是有益的。直到现在，人们才明白，紧急行为自然会发生在这样的非平衡系统中。非技术概述：该奖项支持统计物理领域的理论研究和教育，重点是生物系统和其他通常不平衡的系统。正常的不平衡状态是通过能量流动来维持的，这已经被认识到是自发创造或组织发生的系统的显著特征。生命系统属于高度复杂的不平衡系统，需要持续的能量供应，例如食物。PI将使用统计物理和理论物理中的其他工具来寻找控制自发组织如何发生的基本原则。反过来，远离平衡和涌现行为的系统的统计物理的新的一般原理将被发现。这种基础研究本质上是跨学科的，重点放在凝聚态物质和材料物理以及生物学之间的界面上。该奖项支持基础研究和新技术这一日益增长的机会领域的本科生、研究生和博士后教育。

0705105Marchetti TECHNICAL SUMMARY:This award supports theoretical research and education on condensed matter and biological systems that are maintained out of equilibrium by external or internal energy sources and exhibit emergent structures with collective behavior qualitatively different from that of the individual constituents. The research has two main thrusts.The PI will use analytical and numerical methods to analyze the structural and mechanical properties of active matter; biofilaments and motor proteins and collections of self-propelled (both living and nonliving) entities. A specific goal of the research is to understand the interplay between physical mechanisms and biochemical or other processes in regulating the large-scale organization and function of active matter.The PI will also study coarse-grained models of driven extended media that are "plastically deformed" by the interplay of disorder and drive. Experimental realizations include vortex lattices in superconductors and crack propagation in solids. Coarse-grained models will be studied in finite dimensions by field theoretical methods and numerical simulations to make contact with experiments. This works toward unified classification of the complex nonequilibrium dynamics of driven disordered systems.There are broader impacts to this research. It is an example of taking tradition analysis of nonequilibrium statistical mechanics from physics and discovering that when applied to living systems, both the theory and its applicable subject benefit. Only now is it being understood that emergent behaviors naturally occur in such nonequilibrium systems. NON-TECHNICAL SUMMARY: This award supports theoretical research and education in the area of statistical physics with a focus on biological systems and other systems that are normally out of equilibrium. The normal out-of-equilibrium state is maintained through energy flow and this has been realized as the distinguishing characteristic of systems where spontaneous creation or organization occurs. Living systems fall into the category of highly complex out-of-equilibrium systems that require a constant supply of energy, e.g. food. The PI will use statistical physics and other tools from theoretical physics to seek fundamental principles that govern how spontaneous organization can occur. In turn new general principles of the statistical physics of systems far from equilibrium and emergent behavior will be discovered. This fundamental research is intrinsically interdisciplinary with a focus at the interface between condensed matter and materials physics, and biology. This award supports undergraduate, graduate, and postdoctoral education in this growing area of opportunity for fundamental research and new technologies.