Driven Soft Matter: from Superconducting Vortices to Living Cells

技术概述：该奖项支持凝聚态物质和生物系统的理论研究和教育，这些系统由外部或内部能量源维持不平衡，并表现出具有集体行为与个体成分质的不同的紧急结构。这项研究有两个主要目的。PI将使用解析和数值方法分析活性物质的结构和力学性能；生物丝、运动蛋白和自行式（生物和非生物）实体的集合。研究的一个具体目标是了解物理机制与生物化学或其他过程之间的相互作用，以调节活性物质的大规模组织和功能。PI还将研究受驱动扩展介质的粗粒度模型，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。粗粒度模型将在有限维度上通过现场理论方法和数值模拟进行研究，以与实验相联系。这有助于对驱动无序系统的复杂非平衡动力学进行统一分类。这项研究还有更广泛的影响。这是一个将传统的非平衡统计力学分析从物理学中提取出来，并发现当应用于生命系统时，理论和它的应用对象都受益的例子。直到现在人们才明白，在这种非平衡系统中自然会发生突现行为。非技术概述：该奖项支持统计物理学领域的理论研究和教育，重点关注生物系统和其他通常不平衡的系统。正常的非平衡状态是通过能量流来维持的，这已经被认为是自发创造或自发组织发生的系统的显著特征。生命系统属于高度复杂的非平衡系统，需要持续的能量供应，例如食物。PI将使用统计物理学和理论物理学的其他工具来寻找控制自发组织如何发生的基本原理。反过来，远离平衡和紧急行为的系统的统计物理的新一般原理将被发现。这项基础研究本质上是跨学科的，重点是凝聚态物质和材料之间的界面，物理学和生物学。该奖项支持本科生、研究生和博士后在这个不断增长的基础研究和新技术领域的教育。

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.