Liquid crystals articles within Nature Physics

Featured

  • Research Briefing |

    Studies of a biological active nematic fluid reveal a spontaneous self-constraint that arises between self-motile topological defects and mesoscale coherent flow structures. The defects follow specific contours of the flow field, on which vorticity and strain rate balance, and hence, contrary to expectation, they break mirror symmetry.

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Active flows in biological systems swirl. A coupling between active flows, elongated deformations and defect dynamics helps preserve self-organised structures against disordered swirling.

    • Louise C. Head
    • , Claire Doré
    •  & Tyler N. Shendruk

  • News & Views |

    The liquid-crystal-like order of cells in epithelial tissues aids rearrangements, but there is disagreement over the dominant liquid crystal phase. Now, a unified approach reveals that two distinct symmetries dominate at different scales.

    • Daniel Beller

  • News & Views |

    The guiding of magnetic fields by soft ferromagnetic solids is well known and exploited in magnetic shielding applications. Now, ferroelectric nematic liquids are shown to analogously guide electric fields.

    • Alenka Mertelj

  • Article |

    The ferroelectric uniaxial nematic liquid-crystal phase features a freely reorientable polarization field. When confined in microchannels and subjected to electric fields, this polarization is now found to align with the channels due to a superscreening effect.

    • Federico Caimi
    • , Giovanni Nava
    •  & Tommaso Bellini

  • News & Views |

    Liquid crystal defect structures with topology similar to a Möbius strip can rotate, translate and transform into one another under an applied electric field.

    • Lisa Tran

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Topological defect structures that swim have been realized in liquid crystals. Now, a range of structures with topology reminiscent of a Möbius strip swim and transform into one another.

    • Hanqing Zhao
    • , Jung-Shen B. Tai
    •  & Ivan I. Smalyukh

  • Article |

    Active matter particles self-propel but controlling their direction of motion can be challenging. Here the authors place motile bacteria inside microdroplets and control their propulsion by exploiting the asymmetric director structure of the surrounding liquid crystal.

    • Mojtaba Rajabi
    • , Hend Baza
    •  & Oleg D. Lavrentovich

  • Article |

    Determining the properties that emerge from the equations that govern turbulent flow is a fundamental challenge in non-equilibrium physics. A hydrodynamic theory for two-dimensional active nematic fluids at vanishing Reynolds number is now put forward, revealing a universal scaling behaviour for this class of systems.

    • Ricard Alert
    • , Jean-François Joanny
    •  & Jaume Casademunt

  • Article |

    Braiding by topological defects in an active nematic fluid produces macroscopic chaotic advection, such that the defects themselves act as effective stirring rods. The resultant mixing is revealed to be a result of sliding on a molecular scale.

    • Amanda J. Tan
    • , Eric Roberts
    •  & Linda S. Hirst

  • Letter |

    Structures containing multiple skyrmions inside a larger skyrmion—called skyrmion bags—are experimentally created in liquid crystals and theoretically predicted in magnetic materials. These may have applications in information storage technology.

    • David Foster
    • , Charles Kind
    •  & Ivan I. Smalyukh

  • News & Views |

    An inspired experimental approach sheds light on the formation of active turbulence in a system of microtubules and molecular motors. The emergent scaling behaviour takes us a step closer to understanding how activity begets turbulence.

    • Seth Fraden

  • News & Views |

    A large-scale imaging study has tracked thousands of bacteria living in three-dimensional biofilms. This technical tour de force reveals the importance of mechanical interactions between cells for building local and global structure.

    • Jordi Garcia-Ojalvo

  • News & Views |

    Streams of motile cells appear in both healthy development and the evolution of tumours. A study of cells under lateral confinement now suggests their activity plays a key role in triggering these flows.

    • Francesc Sagués

  • Letter |

    Antiparallel streams of nematically oriented cells arise in both embryonic development and cancer. In vitro experiments and a hydrodynamic active gel theory suggest that these cells are subject to a transition that is driven by their activity.

    • G. Duclos
    • , C. Blanch-Mercader
    •  & P. Silberzan

  • Article |

    Topological defects in a turbulent active nematic on a toroidal surface are shown to segregate in regions of opposite curvature. Simulations suggest that this behaviour may be controlled — or even suppressed — by tuning the level of activity.

    • Perry W. Ellis
    • , Daniel J. G. Pearce
    •  & Alberto Fernandez-Nieves

  • Letter |

    In a nematic liquid crystal, electron orbitals align themselves along one axis, as rods. Thermodynamic observations of such rod-like alignments in CuxBi2Se3 provide evidence for a nematic superconductor.

    • Shingo Yonezawa
    • , Kengo Tajiri
    •  & Yoshiteru Maeno

  • Letter |

    Spindle-shaped cells readily form nematic structures marked by topological defects. When confined, the defect distribution is independent of the domain size, activity and type of cell, lending a stability not found in non-cellular active nematics.

    • Guillaume Duclos
    • , Christoph Erlenkämper
    •  & Pascal Silberzan

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