# Active matter

## TL;DR

Active matter encompasses systems with continuous energy consumption and dissipation, unifying biological and inanimate collective behaviors, with recent advances in experiments and theory highlighting its diverse phenomena and future research directions.

## Contribution

This paper introduces the active matter framework, reviews key experimental and theoretical developments, and discusses future research directions in the field.

## Key findings

- Experimental insights into active granular monolayers.
- Recent theoretical models of collective behavior.
- Identification of active matter as a distinct non-equilibrium class.

## Abstract

The study of systems with sustained energy uptake and dissipation at the scale of the constituent particles is an area of central interest in nonequilibrium statistical physics. Identifying such systems as a distinct category -- Active Matter -- unifies our understanding of autonomous collective move- ment in the living world and in some surprising inanimate imitations. In this article I present the Active Matter framework, briefly recall some early work, review our recent results on single-particle and collective behaviour, including experiments on active granular monolayers, and discuss new directions for the future.