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Updated: Sep 23, 2026

Microfluidic Preparation of Liquid Crystalline Elastomer Actuators
Published on: May 20, 2018
Crystal formation in systems of pseudoforced swarmalators
Brennan J H Hughes1, Christoph Bruder1, Tobias Kehrer1
1University of Basel, Department of Physics, Klingelbergstrasse 82, CH-4056 Basel, Switzerland.
Abstract:
Swarmalators are active agents that move in position space and exhibit internal degrees of freedom. Due to interactions of their positions and phases of oscillation, they show on the one hand swarming, similar to the effect of flocking of birds. In addition, they exhibit synchronization behavior, analogous to what has been observed in fireflies. Previous works studied scenarios in which the phases are forced externally. Here, we consider a pseudoforce that acts on the positions of the swarmalators. Due to the resulting attraction toward the center of position space, transitions from the splintered and active phase-wave state to the static asynchronized state are induced. To quantify the crystal order of swarmalators, we introduce an order parameter that is based on the Fourier transform of their positions.
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