Chirality inversion and odd transport in a suspension of living rotors
Authors: Isabelle Eisenmann, Pedro Cosme, Hannah van Sterkenburg, Hugo Franca, Titouan Seguy, Maria Tatulea-Codrean, Maziyar Jalaal
Abstract
Chiral symmetry breaking is a defining feature of life, visible at all scales from molecules to organisms. Yet how microscopic chirality propagates to shape the macroscopic properties of living matter remains poorly understood. Here, using a new experimental system of spinning microalgae, we show that a living chiral fluid behaves fundamentally differently from an externally driven one. As their density increases, cells self-assemble hydrodynamically into small rotating clusters which merge into a percolating chiral fluid. Strikingly, microscopic and macroscopic vorticity have opposite signs: individual cells all spin clockwise, yet clusters orbit counterclockwise. Combining experiments, theory and simulations, we show that both chirality inversion and percolation are direct consequences of the cells' internally driven nature. We then show how percolation reshapes transport, with even and odd diffusivities responding differently to the emerging network topology.
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Topology protects chiral edge currents in stochastic systemsEvelyn Tang, Jaime Agudo-Canalejo, Ramin Golestanian · 2020 · Phys. Rev. X 11, 031015 (2021) · cited 52 times · AI summary available
Topology protects stochastic chiral edge currents in molecular-cycle networks, rather than studying transport in a living suspension of rotating cells.
Abstract
Constructing systems that exhibit time-scales much longer than those of the underlying components, as well as emergent dynamical and collective behavior, is a key goal in fields such as synthetic biology and materials self-assembly. Inspiration often comes from living systems, in which robust global behavior prevails despite the stochasticity of the underlying processes. Here, we present two-dimensional stochastic networks that consist of minimal motifs representing out-of-equilibrium cycles at the molecular scale and support chiral edge currents in configuration space. These currents arise in the topological phase due to the bulk-boundary correspondence and dominate the system dynamics in t…
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Scaling behavior in non-reciprocal and odd conserved dynamics near criticalityMartin Kjøllesdal Johnsrud, Giulia Pisegna, Ramin Golestanian · 2026 · Soft Condensed Matter · AI summary available
Scaling behavior in the NRCH model concerns critical dynamics of non-reciprocal conserved mixtures, not cell-driven chirality inversion or percolation.
Abstract
In recent years, non-reciprocity has been explored as a ubiquitous manifestation of non-equilibrium activity at the microscopic scales for various active matter systems, from mixtures of chemically active enzymes, colloids, and droplets, to engineered light-controlled active colloids and robotic meta-materials. A commonly used minimal model to describe the dynamics of a binary mixture of conserved species with non-reciprocal interactions is the non-reciprocal Cahn-Hilliard (NRCH) model. The model is characterized by a temperature-like tuning parameter, which can trigger phase separation, and a non-reciprocal coupling, which can lead to the formation of spatio-temporal patterns, as it represe…
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Continuous Symmetry Breaking in a Two-dimensional Rydberg ArrayCheng Chen, Guillaume Bornet, Marcus Bintz et al. · 2022 · Quantum Gases · cited 222 times · AI summary available
Continuous Symmetry Breaking in a Two-dimensional Rydberg Array examines symmetry breaking in an interacting atomic array, rather than collective motion of living rotors.
Abstract
Spontaneous symmetry breaking underlies much of our classification of phases of matter and their associated transitions. It provides an example of the power of many-body interactions, enabling a collection of individual degrees of freedom to align its behavior across large spatial and temporal scales. Crucially, the nature of the underlying symmetry being broken determines many of the qualitative properties of the phase; this is illustrated by the case of discrete versus continuous symmetry breaking. Indeed, in contrast to the discrete case, the breaking of a continuous symmetry is governed by Goldstone's theorem, which predicts the existence of gapless modes that mediate power-law correlati…
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The chiral magnetic effect in hydrodynamical approachA. V. Sadofyev, M. V. Isachenkov · 2010 · Phys.Lett.B697:404-406,2011 · cited 144 times · AI summary available
The chiral magnetic effect in hydrodynamical approach models anomaly-induced currents in quark-gluon plasma, not transport in a suspension of spinning cells.
Abstract
In quark-gluon plasma nonzero chirality can be induced by the chiral anomaly. When a magnetic field is applied to a system with nonzero chirality an electromagnetic current is induced along the magnetic field. This phenomenon is called the chiral magnetic effect. In this paper appearance of the chiral magnetic effect in hydrodynamical approximation is shown. We consider a hydrodynamical model for chiral liquid with two independent currents of left and right handed particles in the presence of the chiral anomaly.
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Directed Aggregation of Cellulose Nanocrystals to Enhance Chiral TwistKévin Ballu, Jia-Hui Lim, Thomas G. Parton et al. · 2024 · Soft Condensed Matter · cited 23 times · AI summary available
Directed Aggregation of Cellulose Nanocrystals studies chiral organization in a nanoparticle suspension, rather than hydrodynamic clustering of living rotors.
Abstract
Cellulose nanocrystals (CNCs) are bioderived nanoparticles that can be isolated from any source of natural cellulose via sulfuric acid hydrolysis. Arising from a combination of the negatively-charged sulfate half-ester groups grafted during this process and their elongated morphology, CNCs typically form colloidal cholesteric liquid crystalline phases in aqueous suspension. Recently, the chiral strength of such a CNC mesophase was correlated to the presence of CNCs with a 'bundle' morphology, analogous to the case of chiral dopants in molecular liquid crystal systems. This indicates the central role these composite particles play in the chiral behavior of CNCs, however the origin and formati…
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Spiral Defect Chaos in Large Aspect Ratio Rayleigh-Benard ConvectionStephen W. Morris, Eberhard Bodenschatz, David S. Cannell et al. · 1993 · patt-sol · cited 207 times · AI summary available
Spiral Defect Chaos in Large Aspect Ratio Rayleigh-Benard Convection reports rotating fluid patterns, but focuses on convection defects rather than cell-driven chirality and transport.
Abstract
We report experiments on convection patterns in a cylindrical cell with a large aspect ratio. The fluid had a Prandtl number of approximately 1. We observed a chaotic pattern consisting of many rotating spirals and other defects in the parameter range where theory predicts that steady straight rolls should be stable. The correlation length of the pattern decreased rapidly with increasing control parameter so that the size of a correlated area became much smaller than the area of the cell. This suggests that the chaotic behavior is intrinsic to large aspect ratio geometries.
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Pumping with SymmetryJulio Andrés Iglesias Martínez, Muamer Kadic, Vincent Laude et al. · 2023 · Materials Science · cited 2 times · AI summary available
Pumping with Symmetry studies topological effects of symmetry changes in acoustic crystals, rather than chiral organization and transport in living matter.
Abstract
Re-configurable materials and meta-materials can jump between space symmetry classes during their deformations. Here, we introduce the concept of singular symmetry enhancement, which refers to an abrupt jump to a higher symmetry class accompanied by an un-avoidable reduction in the number of dispersion bands of the excitations of the material. Such phenomenon prompts closings of some of the spectral resonant gaps along singular manifolds in a parameter space. In this work, we demonstrate that these singular manifolds carry topological charges. As a concrete example, we show that a deformation of an acoustic crystal that encircles a $p11g$-symmetric configuration of the cavity resonators resu…
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Self-similar dynamics of bacterial chemotaxisWaipot Ngamsaad, Kannika Khompurngson · 2012 · Phys. Rev. E 86, 062901 (2012) · cited 7 times · AI summary available
Self-similar dynamics of bacterial chemotaxis models colony growth patterns driven by chemical gradients, rather than rotation-driven clustering and transport.
Abstract
Colonies of bacteria grown on thin agar plate exhibit fractal patterns as a result of adaptation to their environments. The bacterial colony pattern formation is regulated crucially by chemotaxis, the movement of cells along a chemical concentration gradient. Here, the dynamics of pattern formation in bacterial colony is investigated theoretically through a continuum model that considers chemotaxis. In the case of the gradient sensed by the bacterium is nearly uniform, the bacterial colony patterns are self-similar, which they look the same at every scale. The scaling law of the bacterial colony growth has been revealed explicitly. Chemotaxis biases the movement of bacterial population in co…
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