Tang Xingzhou, Selinger Jonathan V
Department of Physics, Advanced Materials and Liquid Crystal Institute, Kent State University, Kent, Ohio 44242, USA.
Phys Rev E. 2021 Feb;103(2-1):022703. doi: 10.1103/PhysRevE.103.022703.
As a method for controlling active materials, researchers have suggested designing patterns of activity on a substrate, which should guide the motion of topological defects. To investigate this concept, we model the behavior of a single defect of topological charge +1/2, moving in an activity gradient. This modeling uses three methods: (1) approximate analytic solution of hydrodynamic equations, (2) macroscopic, symmetry-based theory of the defect as an effective oriented particle, and (3) numerical simulation. All three methods show that an activity gradient aligns the defect orientation, and hence should be useful to control defect motion.
作为一种控制活性材料的方法，研究人员提出在基底上设计活性图案，该图案应能引导拓扑缺陷的运动。为了研究这一概念，我们对拓扑电荷为+1/2的单个缺陷在活性梯度中移动的行为进行了建模。该建模使用了三种方法：(1) 流体动力学方程的近似解析解；(2) 将缺陷作为有效定向粒子的基于对称性的宏观理论；(3) 数值模拟。这三种方法均表明活性梯度会使缺陷取向对齐，因此对于控制缺陷运动应该是有用的。
