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Electrifying active matter - Petia M. Vlahovska (Northwestern University, U.S.A.)

Seminar

On July 15, 2024

Vlahovska

Petia M. Vlahovska (Northwestern University, U.S.A.)

Bird flocks and fish schools move around like fluid when viewed on a scale much larger than the individuals. Similar large-scale coherent motions have been observed with self-propelled micro-particles such as bacteria and motile colloids. In this talk, I will discuss the collective dynamics of particles activated by electric fields, e.g., the Quincke instability (spontaneous spinning of a dielectric particle in an applied uniform DC field) which makes the particles roll on a surface.  I will present our experiments showing how Quincke rollers can be designed to perform Run-and-Tumble-like locomotion mimicking bacteria such as E. coli. Populations of these Quincke random walkers self-organize and exhibit behaviors reminiscent of bacterial suspensions such as dynamic clustering and mesoscale turbulent-like flows, and new behaviors such as emergent multi-vortex states. When enclosed in a drop, the Quincke rollers drive strong shape fluctuations and drop motility resembling amoeba crawling. Finally, I will show how electrohydrodynamic flows can drive droplets to tandem-swim.

 

Contact: Alexander Farutin

 

Date

On July 15, 2024
Complément date

14:00

Localisation

Complément lieu

LIPhy, salle de conférence

Submitted on July 2, 2024

Updated on August 23, 2024