| Issue |
EPL
Volume 105, Number 1, January 2014
|
|
|---|---|---|
| Article Number | 18001 | |
| Number of page(s) | 6 | |
| Section | Interdisciplinary Physics and Related Areas of Science and Technology | |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1209/0295-5075/105/18001 | |
| Published online | 21 January 2014 | |
Instabilities and topological defects in active nematics
The Rudolf Peierls Centre for Theoretical Physics - 1 Keble Road, Oxford, OX1 3NP, UK
Received: 17 December 2013
Accepted: 7 January 2014
We study a continuum model of an extensile active nematic to show that mesoscale turbulence develops in two stages: i) ordered regions undergo an intrinsic hydrodynamic instability generating walls, lines of strong bend deformations; ii) the walls relax by forming oppositely charged pairs of defects. Both creation and annihilation of defect pairs reinstate nematic regions which undergo further instabilities, leading to a dynamic steady state. We compare this with the development of active turbulence in a contractile active nematic.
PACS: 87.10.-e – General theory and mathematical aspects / 83.60.Wc – Flow instabilities
© EPLA, 2013
Current usage metrics show cumulative count of Article Views (full-text article views including HTML views, PDF and ePub downloads, according to the available data) and Abstracts Views on Vision4Press platform.
Data correspond to usage on the plateform after 2015. The current usage metrics is available 48-96 hours after online publication and is updated daily on week days.
Initial download of the metrics may take a while.