The 9th International Conference on Multiscale Materials Modeling

Presentation information

Symposium

M. Time- and History-Dependent Material Properties

[SY-M4] Symposium M-4

Tue. Oct 30, 2018 11:15 AM - 12:30 PM Room4

Chair: Leticia Lopez Flores(University of San Luis Potosi, Mexiko)

[SY-M4] Mechanical behavior and emerging morphologies in active matter

Invited

Ignacio Pagonabarraga (CECAM, EPFL, Switzerland)

Flocks of birds, schools of fishes, or bacterial colonies constitute examples of living systems that coordinate their motion. In all these systems their constituent elements generate motion due to energy consumption and can exchange information or react sensitively to chemical cues in order to move together or to react collectively to external signals. Artificial systems, such as nanorobots, exploit the heterogeneous compositions of their surface to displace as a result of the heterogeneous chemical processes that take place in the presence of appropriate chemical substances.

All these systems are intrinsically out of equilibrium in the absence of any external driving. Their collective properties result as a balance between their direct interactions and the indirect coupling to the medium in which they displace, and a self-consistent dynamical approach is required to analyze their evolution. The mechanical balance that determines the states they develop spontaneously make these systems very versatile and have a natural tendency to for large scale aggregates.

I will consider simple statistical models to address fundamental questions associated to these systems and will analyze the implications the generic self-propulsion has in the emergence of structures in suspensions of model self-propelled particles. I will discuss the potential of schematic models to address fundamental questions, such as the connection of the effective phase diagram and pressure with effective equilibrium concepts. I will analyze the collective behavior of these emerging morphologues and their response to external forcings, as well as how we can understand the resistance to deformation in this type of systems.