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SYNP: Symposium New Trends in Nonequilibrium Physics: Conservation Laws and Nonreciprocal Interactions

SYNP 1: New Trends in Nonequilibrium Physics: Conservation Laws and Nonreciprocal Interactions

SYNP 1.2: Invited Talk

Thursday, March 21, 2024, 15:30–16:00, H 0105

The many faces of living chiral crystals — •Nikta Fakhri — Maasachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, USA

Emergent nonreciprocal interactions can generate self-organized states of matter that are impossible to realize in equilibrium. Here, by combining experiments, simulations, and theory, we demonstrate that nonreciprocal solids composed of living starfish embryos can spontaneously transition between stable static and oscillatory states. The two states are distinguished by the relative dominance of two distinct microscopic mechanisms of chiral symmetry breaking, namely the spinning of individual embryos, and the precession of their axis of rotation. We show that the oscillatory state is characterized by long wavelength optical vibrational modes, and can be selectively excited using external mechanical perturbations. Analysis of coupling between vibrational modes reveals that excitable nonreciprocal solids constitute a distinct class of tunable active metamaterials.

Keywords: nonreciprocal interactions; chiral; nonequilibrium; odd elasticity