Cristina Marchetti: Physics Colloquium: Active Matter -The Physics of Self-Organization

Cristina Marchetti, University of California Santa BarbaraThis lecture introduces the field of active matter, focusing on systems where entities consume energy to generate motion and forces, leading to emergent structures on scales larger than the individuals. The speaker will highlight efforts by physicists, biologists, and engineers to modelthis complex behavior and identify universal principles. Two key exampleswill be explored: how active particles can spontaneously aggregate without attractive interactions, and how flow and topological defects control the dynamics of active phases with liquid crystalline order, relevant across scales from cells to entire organisms.Speaker Institution: Universityof California Santa Barbara