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Topological structure and dynamics of three-dimensional active nematics

Duclos, Guillaume1; Powers, Thomas2; Baskaran, Aparna1; Dogic, Zvonimir3; Vitelli, Vincenzo4; Toschi, Federico5; Adkins, Raymond3; Banerjee, Debarghya6; Peterson, Matthew1; Varghese, Minu1; Kolvin, Itamar3; Pelcovits, Robert2; Streichan, Sebastian3; Beller, Daniel7; Baskaran, Arvind1; Hagan, Michael1; Peterson, Matthew S. E.1; Pelcovits, Robert A.2; Powers, Thomas R.2; Hagan, Michael F.1; Streichan, Sebastian J.3

Published Mar 05, 2020; Updated Mar 19, 2020 on Dryad. https://doi.org/10.25349/D9CS31

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Abstract

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.