Description:

The Center for Computation and Theory of Soft Materials invites you to attend a seminar with Prof. Anton Souslov (University of Cambridge):

Abstract: Active solids consume energy to allow for actuation and shape change not possible in equilibrium. We discover anomalies in the continuum description of non-reciprocal active solids, a ubiquitous class of active materials. In the first half of the talk, I will describe our work on "more is less": We find that as microscopic activity increases, macroscale active response can vanish below an active percolation transition. In the second half, I will talk about the formation and coarsening of dynamical patterns when active solids undergo instabilities. Our results unveil surprising facets of active matter, offering new principles for engineering materials far from equilibrium.

Bio: Anton Souslov is an Associate Professor in the Cavendish Laboratory, Department of Physics at the University of Cambridge, working on the theory of soft materials, including mechanical metamaterials, active matter, topological states, and polymer physics. He was an academic at the University of Bath from 2018 to 2023. Previously, he worked in the James Franck Institute at the University of Chicago, the Lorentz Institute for Theoretical Physics at Leiden University, and the School of Physics at the Georgia Institute of Technology. He received his Ph.D. in 2011 from the University of Pennsylvania working with Tom Lubensky on descriptions of granular media, mechanical metamaterials, and colloids.