２０２０年２月４日 Prof. Matthew Turner

日時：２０２０年２月４日（火）　１６：３０〜
場所：首都大学東京　１１号館２０２号室
講師：Prof. Matthew Turner (University of Warwick)
題目：Dynamics in soft matter and swarms

要旨：I will give an overview of a number of recent projects studied in our lab. Soft matter systems of interest to us include amphiphilic membranes, such as the phospholipid bilayers found in biology and ring polymers, as found in bacterial DNA and also now being synthesised in chemistry labs. In the case of membranes we have been interested in refining techniques to measure their mechanical properties by analysing the thermal fluctuation spectrum of Giant Unilammellar Vesicles (GUVs). We have also studied diffusion on membranes, e.g. of membrane proteins that couple to the local membrane shape and, most recently, active processes that drive flows through or in the fluid membrane. Our work on ring polymers, mainly involving MD simulation but also more abstract Monte Carlo studies, has revealed the possibility of a state that we term a “topological glass” in which the inter-threadings of the rings leads to exponential slowing-down of the longest dynamical relaxation modes. Finally, I will review our recent work on collective motion in thermodynamic and animal systems. A key result here is what is probably the first “bottom up” model for the emergence of collective motion in animal systems.