Swimming droplets and chimera clocks
Abstract
***** PLEASE NOTE THIS SEMINAR WILL COMMENCE AT 12.00 *****
I will present experimental work on collective dynamics in two different systems: (i) a collection of self propelled droplets and (ii) coupled mechanical oscillators.
In the first part, I will talk about microswimmers made from water-in-oil emulsion droplets. Following a brief description of the swimming mechanism, I will discuss some of the collective effects that emerge in quasi 1 and 2 dimensional confinements of swimming droplets. Specifically, I dwell on hydrodynamic and volume exclusion interactions, only through which these droplets can couple their motions.
In the second part, I will present recent results about an intriguing dynamic known as a chimera state. In the world of coupled oscillators, a chimera state is the co-existence of synchrony and asynchrony in a population of identical oscillators, which are coupled nonlocally. Following nearly 10 years of intense theoretical research, it has been an imminent question whether these chimera states exist in real systems. Recently, we built an experiment with of springs, swings and metronomes and realised, for the first time, these symmetry breaking states in a purely physical system.
***** PLEASE NOTE THIS SEMINAR WILL COMMENCE AT 12.00 *****