Geometrically-protected reversibility in hydrodynamic Loschmidt-echo experiments

TL;DR

This study demonstrates how microfluidic droplets can self-organize and maintain reversibility through geometric protection, with a phase transition occurring at high shaking amplitudes, offering insights into non-equilibrium dynamics and potential applications in colloidal assembly.

Contribution

It reveals the structural mechanisms behind reversibility in driven microfluidic emulsions and characterizes a first-order phase transition in this non-equilibrium system.

Findings

Self-organization protects reversibility in microfluidic droplets.

A first-order phase transition occurs at a critical shaking amplitude.

Structural order and reversibility are lost simultaneously at the transition.

Abstract

We demonstrate an archetypal Loschmidt-echo experiment involving thousands of droplets which interact in a reversible fashion via a viscous fluid. Firstly, we show that, unlike equilibrium systems, periodically driven microfluidic emulsions self-organize and geometrically protect their macroscopic reversibility. Self-organization is not merely dynamical; we show that it has a clear structural signature akin to that found in a mixture of molecular liquids. Secondly, we show that, above a maximal shaking amplitude, structural order and reversibility are lost simultaneously in the form of a first order non-equilibrium phase transition. We account for this discontinuous transition in terms of a memory-loss process. Finally, we suggest potential applications of microfluidic echo as a robust tool to tailor colloidal self-assembly at large scales.