Smart, Living & Active Matter - Leiden

Leiden Institute of Physics

About us

The SLAM - Smart, Living, & Active Matter - initiative unites theory and experimental groups of the Leiden Institute of Physics. It currently gathers the groups of Luca Giomi, Louise Jawerth, Daniela Kraft, Martin van Hecke, Silke Henkes and Alexandre Morin.

SLAM symposium on Active Solids - June 4th

We are hosting a symposium on Active Solids on June 4th. While active matter research has mostly focused on active fluids over the past two decades, the physics of active solids has only recently started to emerge as one of the most conceptually involved and technologically promising challenge for the years to come. How is energy dissipated in the absence of motion? Are active solids inherently unstable? Can their instabilities, topological defects, fluctuations etc. be harnessed to achieve mechanical functionalities in microfabricated devices? The goal of this symposium is to delineate future challenges in the study of active solids from living instances to applications, and foster collaborations.


Invited talks by

Jennifer Schwarz (Syracuse), Alexandre Kabla (Cambridge), Michael Lerch (Groningen), Gijsje Koenderink (Delft), Corentin Coulais (Amsterdam), Martin van Hecke (Leiden).

Program

09:30-09:50 -- Welcome and coffee
09:50-10:00 -- Introduction by Luca Giomi
10:00-10:50 -- Alexandre Kaba
10:50-11:40 -- Gijsje Koenderink
11:40-12:40 -- Lunch
12:40-13:30 -- Jennifer Schwarz
14:40-15:30 -- Michael Lerch
15:30-16:20 -- Martin van Hecke
16:20-17:30 -- Borrel

When? June 4th 2024
Where? Leiden Academy Building, Leiden City Center
Registration: before May 30, free of charge, through the link below

Coming up next

2024-05-23 - 13:30 @ Gorter room

SLAM seminar: Giancomo Bartolucci (Louise's guest)

Title: Phase separation in the presence of active chemical reactions

Abstract: In recent years, many efforts have been devoted to characterizing liquid mixtures composed of molecules that interact and undergo chemical reactions, such as the cell cytoplasm or pools of short polymers that mimic the primordial soup. In such mixtures, a key role is played by condensates that form via phase separation. In this talk, I will review a mean-field model capable of describing phase separation kinetics in the presence of chemical reactions. I will focus on reactions that are kept away from equilibrium by continuous turnover of chemical fuel. This framework predicts the existence of out-of-equilibrium stationary states composed of spherical shells, which have recently been observed in experiments using active coacervates. In conclusion, I will discuss the impact of active chemical reactions on the scaling of condensate size and their coarsening behaviour.