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Topological sound in active-liquid metamaterials

Nature Physics volume 13, pages 1091–1094 (2017)Cite this article

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Abstract

Liquids composed of self-propelled particles have been experimentally realized using molecular, colloidal or macroscopic constituents1,2,3,4,5. These active liquids can flow spontaneously even in the absence of an external drive6,7,8. Unlike spontaneous active flow9,10, the propagation of density waves in confined active liquids is not well explored. Here, we exploit a mapping between density waves on top of a chiral flow and electrons in a synthetic gauge field11,12 to lay out design principles for artificial structures termed topological active metamaterials. We design metamaterials that break time-reversal symmetry using lattices composed of annular channels filled with a spontaneously flowing active liquid. Such active metamaterials support topologically protected sound modes that propagate unidirectionally, without backscattering, along either sample edges or domain walls and despite overdamped particle dynamics. Our work illustrates how parity-symmetry breaking in metamaterial structure combined with microscopic irreversibility of active matter leads to novel functionalities that cannot be achieved using only passive materials.

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Figure 1: Steady states of polar active liquids in coupled annular channels.
Figure 2: Dispersion of density waves in active metamaterials either with or without topological edge states.
Figure 3: Topologically protected waveguides composed of an active metamaterial.

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Acknowledgements

We thank M. E. Cates, M. C. Marchetti, R. E. Goldstein, J. Paulose, R. Fleury, V. Cheianov, A. Abanov, Z. Yang and B. Zhang for useful discussions. A.S., B.C.v.Z. and V.V. were funded by FOM, NWO (Vidi grant), and the Delta Institute for Theoretical Physics. D.B. acknowledges support from ANR grant MiTra.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Lorentz Institute, Leiden University, 2300 RA Leiden, The Netherlands

    Anton Souslov, Benjamin C. van Zuiden & Vincenzo Vitelli

  2. University of Lyon, ENS de Lyon, University of Claude Bernard, CNRS, Laboratoire de Physique, F-69342 Lyon, France

    Denis Bartolo

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  1. Anton Souslov
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  2. Benjamin C. van Zuiden
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  4. Vincenzo Vitelli
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Contributions

A.S., D.B. and V.V. designed the project and performed the analytical calculations. A.S. and B.C.v.Z. carried out the numerical simulations. All authors contributed to writing the manuscript.

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Correspondence to Vincenzo Vitelli.

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The authors declare no competing financial interests.

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Souslov, A., van Zuiden, B., Bartolo, D. et al. Topological sound in active-liquid metamaterials. Nature Phys 13, 1091–1094 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1038/nphys4193

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