Instituut-Lorentz, Universiteit Leiden, P.O. Box 9506, 2300 RA Leiden, Netherlands.
Phys Rev Lett. 2023 Mar 3;130(9):098101. doi: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.130.098101.
We investigate numerically and analytically the effects of hydrodynamics on the dynamics of topological defects in p-atic liquid crystals, i.e., two-dimensional liquid crystals with p-fold rotational symmetry. Importantly, we find that hydrodynamics fuels a generic passive self-propulsion mechanism for defects of winding number s=(p-1)/p and arbitrary p. Strikingly, we discover that hydrodynamics always accelerates the annihilation dynamics of pairs of ±1/p defects and that, contrary to expectations, this effect increases with p. Our Letter paves the way toward understanding cell intercalation and other remodeling events in epithelial layers.
我们通过数值和分析方法研究了流体动力学对 p-atic 液晶中拓扑缺陷动力学的影响，即具有 p 重旋转对称性的二维液晶。重要的是，我们发现流体动力学为拓扑缺陷（拓扑缺陷的捻数 s=(p-1)/p，p 为任意整数）提供了一种通用的被动自推进机制。引人注目的是，我们发现流体动力学总是会加速 ±1/p 拓扑缺陷对的湮灭动力学，并且与预期相反，这种效应随着 p 的增加而增加。我们的这篇快报为理解上皮层中的细胞插入和其他重塑事件铺平了道路。
