1,720,971 research outputs found
Ultrafast entropy production in pump-probe experiments
Full text linkThe ultrafast control of materials has opened the possibility to investigate non-equilibrium states of matter with striking properties, such as transient superconductivity and ferroelectricity, ultrafast magnetization and demagnetization, as well as Floquet engineering. The characterization of the ultrafast thermodynamic properties within the material is key for their control and design. Here, we develop the ultrafast stochastic thermodynamics for laser-excited phonons. We calculate the entropy production and heat absorbed from experimental data for single phonon modes of driven materials from time-resolved X-ray scattering experiments where the crystal is excited by a laser pulse. The spectral entropy production is calculated for SrTiO3 and KTaO3 for different temperatures and reveals a striking relation with the power spectrum of the displacement-displacement correlation function by inducing a broad peak beside the eigenmode-resonance.Ultrafast spectroscopy enables characterization and control of non-equilibrium states. Here the authors introduce a stochastic thermodynamics approach to calculate entropy production in a material under ultrafast excitation, using ionic displacement data from time-resolved X-ray scattering experiments
Self-reverting vortices in chiral active matter
Full text linkThere is currently a strong interest in the collective behavior of chiral active particles that can propel and rotate themselves. In the presence of alignment interactions for many chiral particles, chiral self-propulsion can induce vortex patterns in the velocity fields. However, these emerging patterns are non-permanent, and do not induce global vorticity. Here we combine theoretical arguments and computer simulations to predict a so-far unknown class of collective behavior. We show that, for chiral active particles, vortices with significant dynamical coherence emerge spontaneously. They originate from the interplay between attraction interactions and chirality in the absence of alignment interactions. Depending on parameters, the vortices can either feature a constant vorticity or a vorticity that oscillates periodically in time, resulting in self-reverting vortices. Our results may guide future experiments to realize customized collective phenomena such as spontaneously rotating gears and patterns with a self-reverting order.In many chiral particle systems, vortex patterns emerge in the velocity fields due to the alignment interactions, but these patterns are non-permanent and decohere quickly. The authors predict the spontaneous emergence of vortices with high dynamical coherence, and identify the transition between the regimes of constant and oscillating vorticity
Chiral active matter in external potentials
Full text linkWe investigate the interplay between chirality and confinement induced by the presence of an external potential. For potentials having radial symmetry, the circular character of the trajectories induced by the chiral motion reduces the spatial fluctuations of the particle, thus providing an extra effective confining mechanism, that can be interpreted as a lowering of the effective temperature. In the case of non-radial potentials, for instance, with an elliptic shape, chirality displays a richer scenario. Indeed, the chirality can break the parity symmetry of the potential that is always fulfilled in the non-chiral system. The probability distribution displays a strong non-Maxwell-Boltzmann shape that emerges in cross-correlations between the two Cartesian components of the position, that vanishes in the absence of chirality or when radial symmetry of the potential is restored. These results are obtained by considering two popular models in active matter, i.e. chiral Active Brownian particles and chiral active Ornstein-Uhlenbeck particles
Entropons as collective excitations in active solids
Full text linkThe vibrational dynamics of solids is described by phonons constituting basic collective excitations in equilibrium crystals. Here we consider an active crystal composed of self-propelled particles which bring the system into a non-equilibrium steady-state governed by entropy production. Calculating the entropy production spectrum, we put forward the picture of "entropons", which are vibrational collective excitations responsible for entropy production. Entropons are purely generated by activity and coexist with phonons but dominate over them for large self-propulsion strength. The existence of entropons can be verified in experiments on dense self-propelled colloidal Janus-particles and granular active matter, as well as in living systems such as dense cell monolayers
Dynamical clustering and wetting phenomena in inertial active matter
Full text linkDynamical clustering is a key feature of active matter systems composed of self-propelled agents that convert environmental energy into mechanical motion. At the micron scale, where overdamped dynamics dominate, particles with opposite motility can obstruct each other's movement, leading to transient dynamical arrest. This arrest can promote cluster formation and motility-induced phase separation. However, in macroscopic agents, where inertia plays a significant role, clustering is heavily influenced by bounce-back effects during collisions, which can impede cluster growth. Here we present an experiment based on active granular particles, in which inertia can be systematically tuned by changing the shaker frequency. As a result, a set of phenomena driven and controlled by inertia emerges. Before the suppression of clustering, inertia induces a transition in the cluster's inner structure. For small inertia, clusters are characterized by the crystalline order typical of overdamped particles, while for large inertia clusters with liquid-like order are observed. In addition, in contrast to microswimmers, where active particles wet the boundary by primarily forming clusters attached to the container walls, in an underdamped inertial active system, walls do not favor cluster formation and effectively annihilate motility-induced wetting phenomena. As a consequence, inertia suppresses cluster nucleation at the system boundaries.Active matter systems composed of self-propelled agents exhibit dynamical clustering. In this work, the authors demonstrate that inertia induces a solid-liquid transition within the cluster structure and suppresses wetting phenomena at the container boundary
Entropy production and collective excitations of crystals out of equilibrium. The concept of entropons
Full text linkWe study the collective vibrational excitations of crystals under out-of-equilibrium steady conditions that give rise to entropy production. Their excitation spectrum comprises equilibriumlike phonons of thermal origin and additional collective excitations called entropons because each of them represents a mode of spectral entropy production. Entropons coexist with phonons and dominate them when the system is far from equilibrium while they are negligible in near-equilibrium regimes. The concept of entropons has been recently introduced and verified in a special case of crystals formed by self-propelled particles. Here we show that entropons exist in a broader class of active crystals that are intrinsically out of equilibrium and characterized by the lack of detailed balance. After a general derivation, several explicit examples are discussed, including crystals consisting of particles with alignment interactions and frictional contact forces
Going Beyond Counting First Authors in Author Co-citation Analysis
Full text linkThe present study examines one of the fundamental aspects of author co-citation analysis (ACA) - the way co-citation
counts are defined. Co-citation counting provides the data on which all subsequent statistical analyses and mappings
are based, and we compare ACA results based on two different types of co-citation counting - the traditional type that
only counts the first one among a cited work's authors on the one hand and a non-traditional type that takes into
account the first 5 authors of a cited work on the other hand. Results indicate that the picture produced through this non-traditional author co-citation counting contains more coherent author groups and is therefore considerably clearer. However, this picture represents fewer specialties in the research field being studied than that produced through the traditional first-author co-citation counting when the same number of top-ranked authors is selected and analyzed. Reasons for these effects are discussed
Emergent memory from tapping collisions in active granular matter
Full text linkIn an equilibrium thermal environment, random elastic collisions between background particles and a tracer establish the picture of Brownian motion fulfilling the celebrated Einstein relation between diffusivity and mobility. However, extensions of the Einstein relation to link dissipation, fluctuations, and nonequilibrium dynamical mechanisms in active matter systems are still debated. Here, we investigate experimentally the impact of an active background on a passive tracer using vibrationally excited active particles, that result in multiple correlated tapping collisions with the tracer, for which a persistent memory emerges in the dynamics. The system is described by a generalized active Einstein relation that constrains fluctuations, dissipation, and effective activity, by taking the emerging tracer memory into account. Since the resulting persistence can largely be tuned by the environmental density and motility, our findings can be useful to engineer properties of various active systems in biomedical applications, microfluidics, chemical engineering, or swarm robotics.Einstein relations in non-equilibrium active matter systems break upon increase of fluctuations and changes in the system's dissipative properties. By observing the tapping collisions of a tracer in a bath of vibrationally excited active granular particles, the authors propose a generalized active Einstein relation accounting for memory effects
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