Ferromagnetic and antiferromagnetic order in bacterial vortex lattices
Despite their inherent non-equilibrium nature1, living systems can self-organize in highly ordered collective states2,3 that share striking similarities with the thermodynamic equilibrium phases4,5 of conventional condensed matter and fluid systems. Examples range from the liquid-crystal-like arrang...
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2016
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| Online Access: | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4869837/ |
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pubmed-48698372016-09-22 Ferromagnetic and antiferromagnetic order in bacterial vortex lattices Wioland, Hugo Woodhouse, Francis G. Dunkel, Jörn Goldstein, Raymond E. Article Despite their inherent non-equilibrium nature1, living systems can self-organize in highly ordered collective states2,3 that share striking similarities with the thermodynamic equilibrium phases4,5 of conventional condensed matter and fluid systems. Examples range from the liquid-crystal-like arrangements of bacterial colonies6,7, microbial suspensions8,9 and tissues10 to the coherent macro-scale dynamics in schools of fish11 and flocks of birds12. Yet, the generic mathematical principles that govern the emergence of structure in such artificial13 and biological6–9,14 systems are elusive. It is not clear when, or even whether, well-established theoretical concepts describing universal thermostatistics of equilibrium systems can capture and classify ordered states of living matter. Here, we connect these two previously disparate regimes: Through microfluidic experiments and mathematical modelling, we demonstrate that lattices of hydrodynamically coupled bacterial vortices can spontaneously organize into distinct phases of ferro- and antiferromagnetic order. The preferred phase can be controlled by tuning the vortex coupling through changes of the inter-cavity gap widths. The emergence of opposing order regimes is tightly linked to the existence of geometry-induced edge currents15,16, reminiscent of those in quantum systems17–19. Our experimental observations can be rationalized in terms of a generic lattice field theory, suggesting that bacterial spin networks belong to the same universality class as a wide range of equilibrium systems. 2016-01-04 2016-04 /pmc/articles/PMC4869837/ /pubmed/27213004 http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/nphys3607 Text en Users may view, print, copy, and download text and data-mine the content in such documents, for the purposes of academic research, subject always to the full Conditions of use:http://www.nature.com/authors/editorial_policies/license.html#terms |
| repository_type |
Open Access Journal |
| institution_category |
Foreign Institution |
| institution |
US National Center for Biotechnology Information |
| building |
NCBI PubMed |
| collection |
Online Access |
| language |
English |
| format |
Online |
| author |
Wioland, Hugo Woodhouse, Francis G. Dunkel, Jörn Goldstein, Raymond E. |
| spellingShingle |
Wioland, Hugo Woodhouse, Francis G. Dunkel, Jörn Goldstein, Raymond E. Ferromagnetic and antiferromagnetic order in bacterial vortex lattices |
| author_facet |
Wioland, Hugo Woodhouse, Francis G. Dunkel, Jörn Goldstein, Raymond E. |
| author_sort |
Wioland, Hugo |
| title |
Ferromagnetic and antiferromagnetic order in bacterial vortex lattices |
| title_short |
Ferromagnetic and antiferromagnetic order in bacterial vortex lattices |
| title_full |
Ferromagnetic and antiferromagnetic order in bacterial vortex lattices |
| title_fullStr |
Ferromagnetic and antiferromagnetic order in bacterial vortex lattices |
| title_full_unstemmed |
Ferromagnetic and antiferromagnetic order in bacterial vortex lattices |
| title_sort |
ferromagnetic and antiferromagnetic order in bacterial vortex lattices |
| description |
Despite their inherent non-equilibrium nature1, living systems can self-organize in highly ordered collective states2,3 that share striking similarities with the thermodynamic equilibrium phases4,5 of conventional condensed matter and fluid systems. Examples range from the liquid-crystal-like arrangements of bacterial colonies6,7, microbial suspensions8,9 and tissues10 to the coherent macro-scale dynamics in schools of fish11 and flocks of birds12. Yet, the generic mathematical principles that govern the emergence of structure in such artificial13 and biological6–9,14 systems are elusive. It is not clear when, or even whether, well-established theoretical concepts describing universal thermostatistics of equilibrium systems can capture and classify ordered states of living matter. Here, we connect these two previously disparate regimes: Through microfluidic experiments and mathematical modelling, we demonstrate that lattices of hydrodynamically coupled bacterial vortices can spontaneously organize into distinct phases of ferro- and antiferromagnetic order. The preferred phase can be controlled by tuning the vortex coupling through changes of the inter-cavity gap widths. The emergence of opposing order regimes is tightly linked to the existence of geometry-induced edge currents15,16, reminiscent of those in quantum systems17–19. Our experimental observations can be rationalized in terms of a generic lattice field theory, suggesting that bacterial spin networks belong to the same universality class as a wide range of equilibrium systems. |
| publishDate |
2016 |
| url |
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4869837/ |
| _version_ |
1613580392891154432 |