Chaos in Liquid Crystal Directrons

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates a biomimetic transition from directed to chaotic dynamics in achiral nematic liquid crystals driven by multi-directron interactions, providing insights into biological-like adaptability in soft matter systems.

Contribution

It introduces a new liquid crystal system exhibiting intrinsic chaos from interactions and presents a minimal model capturing this transition, advancing soft matter research.

Findings

Coexistence of directed and chaotic directron families.

Dynamic assembly formation and fission events observed.

Transition to chaos occurs above a critical electric field.

Abstract

Biological systems often operate at the boundary between order and chaos, transitioning from directed to irregular dynamics to achieve adaptability and robustness. Reproducing such transitions in artificial soft matter remains a central challenge. Here, we report a biomimetic regime of directron dynamics in achiral nematic liquid crystals, in which coherent, directed motion collectively evolves into chaos. Driven by multi-directron interactions, the system develops coexisting directron families with competing trajectories, displaying randomized motion, dynamic assembly formation and spontaneous fission of high energy to low energy daughter directrons - all of which mimics the phenotypic diversity observed in biological groups. Above a critical electric field, these interactions drive the system into a chaotic state that is distinct from the directed behaviours reported previously. We further introduce a minimal dipole-based model that qualitatively captures the underlying physics of this transition. Together, our results establish an artificial active system in which chaos emerges intrinsically from interactions, offering a versatile platform to study biological dynamics and opening new avenues for liquid-crystal-based soft-matter applications involving adaptive transport, cargo delivery, and energy transduction