Journal
SCIENCE
Volume 367, Issue 6482, Pages 1120-+Publisher
AMER ASSOC ADVANCEMENT SCIENCE
DOI: 10.1126/science.aaz4547
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Funding
- U.S. Department of Energy, Office of Basic Energy Sciences [DE-SC0019733]
- HFSP fellowships
- NSF-GRFP
- FOM
- NWO
- Army Research Office [W911NF-19-1-0268]
- NSF-MRSEC [DMR-1420709]
- NIH-R00 award [5R00HD088708-05]
- Isaac Newton Institute for Mathematical Sciences - EPSRC [EP/R014604/1]
- [NSF-DMR-1855914]
- [NSF-MRSEC-1420382]
- [NSF-CBET-1437195]
- U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) [DE-SC0019733] Funding Source: U.S. Department of Energy (DOE)
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Topological structures are effective descriptors of the nonequilibrium dynamics of diverse many-body systems. For example, motile, point-like topological defects capture the salient features of two-dimensional active liquid crystals composed of energy-consuming anisotropic units. We dispersed force-generating microtubule bundles in a passive colloidal liquid crystal to form a three-dimensional active nematic. Light-sheet microscopy revealed the temporal evolution of the millimeter-scale structure of these active nematics with single-bundle resolution. The primary topological excitations are extended, charge-neutral disclination loops that undergo complex dynamics and recombination events. Our work suggests a framework for analyzing the nonequilibrium dynamics of bulk anisotropic systems as diverse as driven complex fluids, active metamaterials, biological tissues, and collections of robots or organisms.
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