Title: Ordering and dynamics of fluidised rods

Author (Invited): Narayanan Menon, University of Massachusetts Amherst

Abstract:

Nonspherical particles tend to pack in orientationally ordered states at high densities. I will discuss experiments that study the ordering of fluidised rod-like grains and compare these to the ordered states seen in equilibrium liquid crystalline systems. Nonequilibrium effects are most pronounced, though, in the dynamics seen in these nonequilibrium steady states. I will discuss these effects, which include persistent vortices and large-scale swirling, in the light of recent theories of active, or self-propelled, particles.