Fluctuations and Response in Active Materials: From Driven Granular Systems to Swarming Bacteria

1115279 PI：智力优势：我们寻求来自美国，欧洲和印度的29名参与者的国际旅行费用支持，以参加2011年6月20日至24日在莱顿大学洛伦兹中心举行的研讨会“活性材料的波动和响应：从驱动颗粒系统到群集细菌”。该研讨会汇集了研究颗粒和活性生物系统的理论，计算和实验科学家。活性物质的研究领域是由有组织的集体动力学推动的，群集，学校教育和生物体所表现出的群集。活性系统在生物学中大量存在，包括细菌悬浮液、细胞骨架和活组织。这些系统的一个基本特征是主动或自推进粒子的重要作用。最近人们已经认识到，非生命系统，如剪切和振动的颗粒材料，显示类似的动力学行为的活性系统，但不具备板载能源。相反，被驱动的颗粒物质通过与容器边界和其他颗粒的碰撞获得和耗散能量。各向异性的“激活的无生命颗粒系统的丰富的集体行为显示出与活性物质的时空行为惊人的相似性。了解颗粒和活性生命物质之间的重要相似性和差异，并确定在这两种类型的系统中产生集体和紧急行为的物理原理，可能会导致在自然和人工系统中增强或抑制这些行为。更广泛的影响：研讨会有两个主要目标。首先，我们寻求确定有前途的富有成效的研究方向，将解决基本的开放性问题，共同的非生命的，物理系统，如颗粒介质和活性，生命系统。出现的一些重要问题包括：1）决定大尺度行为的活性物质的“普遍”性质是什么，2）对活性生物物质的更好理解能否导致设计策略以防止颗粒、胶体和其他物理系统中不必要的堵塞和玻璃态行为，以及3）生物活性、集体行为，生物系统中模式的形成可以用物理力、反应和波动来解释。 其次，我们寻求鼓励科学家在颗粒和活性物质方面的国际合作，以开发跨学科研究计划来解决这些开放性问题。目前，这两个研究团体是脱节的，很少有讨论和思想的交叉。研讨会将被认为是一个成功的，如果我们建立强大的国际和跨学科的合作和研究小组之间的联系，在颗粒和积极的，活的问题。作为这次研讨会的结果，我们设想在美国、欧洲和印度的科学家之间就颗粒和活性媒体开展国际合作。我们已经确认了29位受邀演讲者（16位来自美国，13位来自欧洲）和7位组委会成员的参与。5名女性受邀与会者、1名非洲裔发言者和7名初级教员与会者占受邀发言者的近一半。除了受邀的演讲者和组织者外，我们预计至少还有30名与会者。例如，我们将鼓励受邀演讲者将他们小组的研究生或博士后带到研讨会上，展示他们工作的海报或简短演讲。此外，我们将在洛伦兹中心网站上发布公告，我们将为来自科学和工程领域代表性不足的团体的注册参与者提供旅行支持。这些参与者将得到美国物理学会的旅行赠款。

1115279 PI: O'Hern, Corey S.Intellectual Merit:We seek support of international travel costs for 29 participants from the US, Europe, and India to attend the Workshop "Fluctuations and Response in Active Materials: From Driven Granular Systems to Swarming Bacteria" at the Lorentz Center, Leiden University June 20-24, 2011. The workshop brings together theoretical, computational, and experimental scientists studying granular and active biological systems. The research field of active matter was motivated by organized, collective dynamics flocking, schooling, and swarming exhibited by living matter. Active systems abound in biology and include bacterial suspensions, cell cytoskeleton, and living tissues. A basic feature of these systems is the important role of active or selfpropelled particles. It has been recognized recently that nonliving systems, such as sheared and vibrated granular materials, display similar dynamical behaviors to those of active systems, but do not possess an on-board energy source. Instead, driven granular materials gain and dissipate energy from collisions with the boundaries of the container and other particles.The rich collective behaviors of anisotropic `activated nonliving granular systems show striking similarities to the spatio-temporal behavior of active matter. Understanding the important similarities and differences between granular and active living matter and identifying the physical principles that give rise to collective and emergent behavior in both types of systems can potentially lead to either enhancing or inhibiting these behaviors in natural and artificial systems.Broader Impact:The Workshop has two primary objectives. First, we seek to identify promising fruitful research directions that will address the fundamental open questions that are common to both nonliving, physical systems such as granular media and active, living systems. Some of the important questions that have emerged include: 1) what are the "universal" properties of active matter that determine large-scale behavior, 2) can an improved understanding of active living matter lead to design strategies to prevent unwanted jamming and glassy behavior in granular, colloidal, and other physics systems, and 3) to what extent can bio-activity, collective behavior, and pattern formation in biological systems be explained by physical forces, response, and fluctuations. Second, we seek to encourage international collaborations among scientists in granular and active matter to develop interdisciplinary research programs to tackle these open questions. At present, the two research communities are disjointed with minimal discussion and cross-fertilization of ideas. The workshop will be considered a success if we establish strong international and interdisciplinary collaborations and linkages among research groups working in granular and active, living matter. As a result of this workshop, we envision developing an international collaboration among scientists in the US, Europe, and India on granular and active media. We have confirmed the participation of 29 invited speakers (16 from the US and 13 from Europe) and 7 members of the organizing committee. Five female invited participants, 1 speaker of African descent, and 7 junior faculty participants comprise nearly half of the invited speakers. In addition to the invited speakers and organizers, we expect at least 30 additional participants. For example, we will encourage the invited speakers to bring graduate students or postdocs from their groups with them to the workshop to present a poster or short talk on their work. In addition, we will post an announcement on the Lorentz Center website that we will offer travel support to registered participants from underrepresented groups in science and engineering. These participants will be supported by travel grants from the American Physical Society.