COLLOQUIUM DFA: Nicoletta Gnan
Speaker: Nicoletta Gnan
Title: Going out of equilibrium and coming back: the case of active matter
Affiliation: Institute for Complex Systems of the Italian National Research Council (CNR)
Where and When14-12-2023 | 15:00 | Aula Rostagni
URL sito web:https://indico.dfa.unipd.it/event/923/
Abstract: Active matter is a f ascinati ng realm of non-equilibrium physics that has been studied extensively over the past few years. This comprises all those entities, from living systems to synthetic microparticles, that harness energy from their surroundings, such as through chemical reactions or external power sources, to propel themselves. As a consequence, active systems exist inherently in a non-equilibrium state, displaying a variety of novel phenomena that have been investigated through the combined efforts of statistical theory, computer simulations, and experiments. After an introduction on active matter at the microscale, I will describe an example of active phase transition induced by the motility of the particles. An important result that I will discuss is how active systems sometimes behave, unexpectedly, almost indistinguishably from equilibrium matter.
