Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: http://hdl.handle.net/2445/184774
Title: Guided accumulation of active particles by topological design of a second-order skin effect
Author: Palacios, Lucas
Tchoumalov, Serguei
Guix, Maria
Pagonabarraga Mora, Ignacio
Sanchez, Samuel
Grushin, Adolfo G.
Keywords: Pell
Partícules (Matèria)
Matèria condensada
Skin
Particles
Condensed matter
Issue Date: 1-Jun-2021
Publisher: Nature Publishing Group
Abstract: Collective guidance of out-of-equilibrium systems without using external fields is a challenge of paramount importance in active matter, ranging from bacterial colonies to swarms of self-propelled particles. Designing strategies to guide active matter and exploiting enhanced diffusion associated to its motion will provide insights for application from sensing, drug delivery to water remediation. However, achieving directed motion without breaking detailed balance, for example by asymmetric topographical patterning, is challenging. Here we engineer a two-dimensional periodic topographical design with detailed balance in its unit cell where we observe spontaneous particle edge guidance and corner accumulation of self-propelled particles. This emergent behaviour is guaranteed by a second-order non-Hermitian skin effect, a topologically robust non-equilibrium phenomenon, that we use to dynamically break detailed balance. Our stochastic circuit model predicts, without fitting parameters, how guidance and accumulation can be controlled and enhanced by design: a device guides particles more efficiently if the topological invariant characterizing it is non-zero. Our work establishes a fruitful bridge between active and topological matter, and our design principles offer a blueprint to design devices that display spontaneous, robust and predictable guided motion and accumulation, guaranteed by out-of-equilibrium topology.
Note: Reproducció del document publicat a: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-021-24948-2
It is part of: Nature Communications, 2021, vol. 12, p. 4691
URI: http://hdl.handle.net/2445/184774
Related resource: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-021-24948-2
ISSN: 2041-1723
Appears in Collections:Articles publicats en revistes (Institut de Recerca en Sistemes Complexos (UBICS))
Articles publicats en revistes (Física de la Matèria Condensada)
Publicacions de projectes de recerca finançats per la UE
Articles publicats en revistes (Institut de Bioenginyeria de Catalunya (IBEC))

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