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Giuseppe Negro

Publications and source records attributed to Giuseppe Negro.

At least 37 records · Page 2Linked to original sources
arXiv2024

3D active nematic disclinations behave as Majorana quasiparticles

Quasiparticles are low-energy excitations with important roles in condensed matter physics. An intriguing example is provided by Majorana fermions, quasiparticles which are identical to their antiparticles. Despite being implicated in neutrino oscillations and topological superconductivity, their experimental realisations remain scarce. Here we propose a purely classical realisation of Majorana fermions, in terms of 3-dimensional disclination lines in active nematics. Activity is required to overcome the elastic cost associated with these excitations, so they can appear in steady state. We combine topology and simulations to show that active nematics under confinement spontaneously create in their interior topologically charged disclination lines and loops, akin to Majorana quasiparticles with finite momentum. Within an elongated channel, we find a phenomenology similar to that of the Kitaev chain, as local Majorana-like excitations appear near surfaces, while a non-local system-spanning helical disclination line can arise along the centre. In unconfined active turbulence, Majorana-like charged loops are instead exceedingly rare, suggesting that boundaries are crucial to generate these quasiparticles, as in quantum condensed matter. We suggest that 3-dimensional active disclinations can be used to probe the physics of Majorana spinors at a much larger scale than traditionally considered, potentially facilitating the experimental observation of their dynamics.

cond-mat.soft↗
arXiv2024

Controlling flow patterns and topology in active emulsions

Active emulsions and liquid crystalline shells are intriguing and experimentally realisable types of topological matter. Here we numerically study the morphology and spatiotemporal dynamics of a double emulsion, where one or two passive small droplets are embedded in a larger active droplet. We find activity introduces a variety of rich and nontrivial nonequilibrium states in the system. First, a double emulsion with a single active droplet becomes self-motile, and there is a transition between translational and rotational motion: both of these regimes remain defect-free, hence topologically trivial. Second, a pair of particles nucleate one or more disclination loops, with conformational dynamics resembling a rotor or chaotic oscillator, accessed by tuning activity. In the first state a single, topologically charged, disclination loop powers the rotation. In the latter state, this disclination stretches and writhes in 3D, continuously undergoing recombination to yield an example of an active living polymer. These emulsions can be self-assembled in the lab, and provide a pathway to form flow and topology patterns in active matter in a controllable way, as opposed to bulk systems that typically yield active turbulence.

cond-mat.soft↗
arXiv2024

Growth regimes in three-dimensional phase separation of liquid-vapor systems

The liquid-vapor phase separation is investigated via lattice Boltzmann simulations in three dimensions. After expressing length and time scales in reduced physical units, we combined data from several large simulations (on $512^3$ nodes), with different values of viscosity, surface tension and temperature, to obtain a single curve of rescaled length $\hat{l}$ as a function of rescaled time $\hat{t}$. We find evidence of the existence of kinetic and inertial regimes with growth exponents $α_d=1/2$ and $α_i=2/3$ over several time decades, with a crossover from $α_d$ to $α_i$ at $\hat{t} \simeq 1$. This allows us to rule out the existence of a viscous regime with $α_v=1$ in three-dimensional liquid-vapor isothermal phase separation, differently from what happens in binary fluid mixtures. An in-depth analysis of the kinetics of the phase separation process, as well as a characterization of the morphology and the flow properties, are further presented in order to provide clues into the dynamics of the phase-separation process.

cond-mat.soft↗
arXiv2023

A sharpened energy-Strichartz inequality for the wave equation

We consider the sharp Strichartz estimate for the wave equation on $\mathbb R^{1+5}$ in the energy space, due to Bez and Rogers. We show that it can be refined by adding a term proportional to the distance from the set of maximisers, in the spirit of the classical sharpened Sobolev estimate of Bianchi and Egnell.

math.CA↗
arXiv2023

Topological Phases and Curvature-Driven Pattern Formation in Cholesteric Shells

We study the phase behaviour of cholesteric liquid crystal shells with different geometries. We compare the cases of tangential and no anchoring at the surface, focussing on the former case, which leads to a competition between the intrinsic tendency of the cholesteric to twist and the anchoring free energy which suppresses it. We then characterise the topological phases arising close to the isotropic-cholesteric transition. These typically consist of quasi-crystalline or amorphous tessellations of the surface by half-skyrmions, which are stable at lower and larger shell size respectively. For ellipsoidal shells, defects in the tessellation couple to local curvature, and according to the shell size they either migrate to the poles or distribute uniformly on the surface. For toroidal shells, the variations in the local curvature of the surface stabilises heterogeneous phases where cholesteric or isotropic patterns coexist with hexagonal lattices of half-skyrmions.

cond-mat.soft↗
arXiv2022

3D polymer simulations of genome organization and transcription across different chromosomes and cell types

We employ the diffusing transcription factors model for numerical simulation of chromatin topology conformations and transcriptional processes of human chromatin. Simulations of a short chromatin filament reveal different possible pathways to regulate transcription: it is shown that the transcriptional activity profile can be regulated and controlled by either acting on the chain structural properties, or on external factors, such as the number of transcription factors. Additionally, comparisons between GRO-seq experimental data and large scale numerical simulation of entire chromosomes from the human umbilical vein endothelial cell and the B-lmphocyte GM12878 show that the model provides reliable and statistically significant predictions for transcription across different cell-lines.

cond-mat.soft↗
arXiv2022

Hydrodynamic effects on the liquid-hexatic transition of active colloids

We study numerically the role of hydrodynamics in the liquid-hexatic transition of active colloids at intermediate activity, where motility induced phase separation (MIPS) does not occur. We show that in the case of active Brownian particles (ABP), the critical density of the transition decreases upon increasing the particle's mass, enhancing ordering, while self-propulsion has the opposite effect in the activity regime considered. Active hydrodynamic particles (AHP), instead, undergo the liquid-hexatic transition at higher values of packing fraction $ϕ$ than the corresponding ABP, suggesting that hydrodynamics have the net effect of disordering the system. At increasing densities, close to the hexatic-liquid transition, we found in the case of AHP the appearance of self-sustained organized motion with clusters of particles moving coherently.

cond-mat.stat-mech↗
arXiv2022

When does $e^{-\lvert τ\rvert }$ maximize Fourier extension for a conic section?

In the past decade, much effort has gone into understanding maximizers for Fourier restriction and extension inequalities. Nearly all of the cases in which maximizers for inequalities involving the restriction or extension operator have been successfully identified can be seen as partial answers to the question in the title. In this survey, we focus on recent developments in sharp restriction theory relevant to this question. We present results in the algebraic case for spherical and hyperbolic extension inequalities. We also discuss the use of the Penrose transform leading to some negative answers in the case of the cone.

math.CA↗
arXiv2022

Intermittent symmetry breaking and stability of the sharp Agmon--Hörmander estimate on the sphere

We compute the optimal constant and characterise the maximisers at all spatial scales for the Agmon--Hörmander $L^2$-Fourier adjoint restriction estimate on the sphere. The maximisers switch back and forth from being constants to being non-symmetric at the zeros of two Bessel functions. We also study the stability of this estimate and establish a sharpened version in the spirit of Bianchi--Egnell. The corresponding stability constant and maximisers again exhibit a curious intermittent behaviour.

math.CA↗
arXiv2022

Yield-stress transition in suspensions of deformable droplets

Yield-stress materials, which require a sufficiently large forcing to flow, are currently ill-understood theoretically. To gain insight into their yielding transition, here we study numerically the rheology of a suspension of deformable droplets under pressure-driven flow. We show that the suspension displays yield-stress behaviour, with the droplets remaining motionless when the applied body-force is below a critical value. In the non-flowing phase, droplets jam to form an amorphous structure, whereas they order in the flowing phase. Yielding is linked to a percolation transition in the contacts of droplet-droplet overlaps, and requires suitable wetting boundary conditions and strict conservation of the droplet area to exist. Close to the yielding transition, we find strong oscillations in the droplet motion which closely resemble those found experimentally in confined colloidal glasses under flow. We show that even when droplets are static the underlying solvent moves by permeation, so that the viscosity of the composite system is never truly infinite, and, as we discuss, its precise value ceases to be a bulk material property of the system.

cond-mat.soft↗
arXiv2022

A sharpened Strichartz inequality for the wave equation

We disprove a conjecture of Foschi, regarding extremizers for the Strichartz inequality with data in the Sobolev space $\dot{H}^{1/2}\times\dot{H}^{-1/2}(\mathbb R^d)$, for even $d\ge 2$. On the other hand, we provide evidence to support the conjecture in odd dimensions, and refine his sharp inequality in $\mathbb R^{1+3}$, adding a term proportional to the distance of the initial data from the set of extremizers. The proofs use the conformal compactification of the Minkowski space-time given by the Penrose transform.

math.CA↗
arXiv2021

Cholesteric shells: two-dimensional blue fog and finite quasicrystals

We study the phase behaviour of a quasi-two dimensional cholesteric liquid crystal shell. We characterise the topological phases arising close to the isotropic-cholesteric transition, and show that they differ in a fundamental way from those observed on a flat geometry. For spherical shells, we discover two types of quasi-two dimensional topological phases: finite quasicrystals and amorphous structures, both made up by mixtures of polygonal tessellations of half-skyrmions. These structures generically emerge instead of regular double twist lattices because of geometric frustration, which disallows a regular hexagonal tiling of curved space. For toroidal shells, the variations in the local curvature of the surface stabilises heterogeneous phases where cholesteric patterns coexist with hexagonal lattices of half-skyrmions. Quasicrystals, amorphous and heterogeneous structures could be sought experimentally by self assembling cholesteric shells on the surface of emulsion droplets.

cond-mat.soft↗
arXiv2021

Rheology of active emulsions with negative effective viscosity

We numerically study by lattice Boltzmann simulations the rheological properties of an active emulsion made of a suspension of an active polar gel embedded in an isotropic passive background. We find that the hexatic equilibrium configuration of polar droplets is highly sensitive to both active injection and external forcing and may either lead to asymmetric unidirectional states which break top-bottom symmetry or symmetric ones. In this latter case, for large enough activity, the system develops a shear-thickening regime at low shear rates. Importantly, for larger external forcing a regime with stable negative effective viscosity is found. Moreover, at intermediate activity a region of multistability is encountered and we show that a maximum entropy production principle holds in selecting the most favorable state.

cond-mat.soft↗
arXiv2020

Local maximizers of adjoint Fourier restriction estimates for the cone, paraboloid and sphere

We show that, possibly after a compactification of spacetime, constant functions are local maximizers of the Tomas-Stein adjoint Fourier restriction inequality for the cone and paraboloid in every dimension, and for the sphere in dimension up to 60. For the cone and paraboloid we work from the PDE framework, which enables the use of the Penrose and the Lens transformations, which map the conjectured optimal functions into constants.

math.CA↗
arXiv2020

Rotation and propulsion in 3d active chiral droplets

Chirality is a recurrent theme in the study of biological systems, in which active processes are driven by the internal conversion of chemical energy into work. Bacterial flagella, acto-myosin filaments and microtubule bundles are active systems which are also intrinsically chiral. Despite some exploratory attempt to capture the relations between chirality and motility, no intrinsically chiral system has ever been analyzed so far. To address this gap in knowledge, here we study the effects of internal active forces and torques on a three-dimensional droplet of cholesteric liquid crystal (CLC) embedded in an isotropic liquid. We consider tangential anchoring of the liquid crystal director at the droplet surface. Contrary to what happens in nematics, where moderate extensile activity leads to droplet rotation, cholesteric active droplets exhibit a lot more complex and variegated behaviors. We find that extensile force dipole activity stabilises complex defect configurations whose orbiting dynamics couples to thermodynamic chirality to propel screw-like droplet motion. Instead, dipolar torque activity may either tighten or unwind the cholesteric helix, and if tuned can power rotations with an oscillatory angular velocity of zero mean.

cond-mat.soft↗
arXiv2019

A sharp Lorentz-invariant Strichartz norm expansion for the cubic wave equation in $\mathbb{R}^{1+3}$

We provide an asymptotic formula for the maximal Strichartz norm of small solutions to the cubic wave equation in Minkowski space. The leading coefficient is given by Foschi's sharp constant for the linear Strichartz estimate. We calculate the constant in the second term, which differs depending on whether the equation is focussing or defocussing. The sign of this coefficient also changes accordingly.

math.AP↗
arXiv2019

Lattice Boltzmann Methods and Active Fluids

We review the state of the art of active fluids with particular attention to hydrodynamic continuous models and to the use of Lattice Boltzmann Methods (LBM) in this field. We present the thermodynamics of active fluids, in terms of liquid crystals modelling adapted to describe large-scale organization of active systems, as well as other effective phenomenological models. We discuss how LBM can be implemented to solve the hydrodynamics of active matter, starting from the case of a simple fluid, for which we explicitly recover the continuous equations by means of Chapman-Enskog expansion. Going beyond this simple case, we summarize how LBM can be used to treat complex and active fluids. We then review recent developments concerning some relevant topics in active matter that have been studied by means of LBM: spontaneous flow, self-propelled droplets, active emulsions, rheology, active turbulence, and active colloids.

cond-mat.soft↗