Physics Seminar (DTU ACTIVE)
Abstract:
Active matter, composed of self-propelling entities, is found across scales in nature, from cellular tissues to animal groups. Such systems, as well as engineered active materials, exhibit many types of collective behaviors and unusual mechanical properties. I will discuss the simplest phase transition taking place in active systems: the motility-induced phase separation (MIPS), which is driven by the decrease in velocity of active particles due to steric interactions. Although it is a purely Nonequilibrium phenomenon, as a first approximation, the phase equilibrium can be understood in the same way as for an equilibrium phase separation, albeit using effective thermodynamic functions. However, at a large scale, these systems exhibit a radically different behavior termed “bubbly phase separation”.
Short bio:
Alexandre Solon is one of the leading researchers in Active Matter, a non-equilibrium statistical physical framework aiming to improve the physical understanding of biological phenomena. His main research interests are non-equilibrium statistical mechanics, active matter, cell motility, and stochastic thermodynamics. ‘During his PhD in Université Paris-Diderot, he proposed and studied the ‘Active Ising Model’ as a hydrodynamic field theory for the bird flocking, models ‘. Further, he did his postdoc at MIT where he pursued his interest in Active matter and Non-equilibrium phenomena in statistical physics. Since 2018, he is working as a CNRS research scientist at LPTMC, Sorbonne Université.