Three-Dimensional Active Liquid Crystals: Defects and Topology

活性物质是一类物质，其中的单个成分不断消耗能量以产生功或运动，保持动态的非平衡状态。这些系统为非平衡物理学提供了基本的见解，并为物理学和生物学之间的接口提供了框架。迄今为止，研究的重点是二维主动系统，尽管最近的实验也开始出现在三维系统上。在这个项目中，我们将发展三维活性液晶的理论认识，重点是它们的拓扑缺陷，孤子结构和几何特征。我们将把缺陷环的解析描述和它们产生的活动流与全非线性流体动力学方程的数值解结合起来，以建立它们的动力特性、不稳定性和相行为。这些见解将使我们能够将活性液晶和生命系统之间的现有联系扩展到大块三维细胞结构、组织及其形态

Active matter is a class of materials in which the individual constituents continually consume energy to generate work or motion, maintaining dynamic, non-equilibrium states. These systems are providing fundamental insight into nonequilibrium physics and a framework for the interface between physics and biology. The focus to date has been on two-dimensional active systems, although recent experiments have begun to emerge also in three dimensions. In this project we will develop the theoretical understanding of three-dimensional active liquid crystals, with focus on their topological defects, soliton structures and geometric characteristics. We will combine analytical descriptions of defect loops and the active flows they generate with numerical solutions of the full non-linear hydrodynamic equations to establish their dynamic properties, instabilities and phase behaviour. These insights will allow us to extend the existing connections between active liquid crystals and living systems to bulk three-dimensional cell structures, tissues and their morphology