Mathematical Physics Seminar 23/2 – Dr Ananyo Maitra – Time Liquid Crystals: A story of activity, chirality and non-reciprocity
Abstract: Active matter theories generally augment descriptions of passive liquid crystals with nonequilibrium forces and currents, thereby addressing how activity affects these structures. In this talk, I will ask a less common question: can activity create new liquid crystals — spatiotemporal structures impossible in passive systems? I will demonstrate that the interplay of chiral asymmetry and activity yields liquid crystalline phases that break time-translation symmetry, which cannot be broken in equilibrium and present two examples: a time-cholesteric phase and a time-crystalline phase with hexatic spatial order. I will further argue that time liquid crystalline phases exist even in systems whose microscopic constituents are structurally achiral due to non-reciprocal interactions.