May 11 – 14, 2026
Maskawa Building for Education and Research
Asia/Tokyo timezone

Topological edge states in bacterial collective motion: results and open problems

May 14, 2026, 11:20 AM
40m

Speaker

Kazumasa A Takeuchi (University of Tokyo)

Description

Characteristic transport associated with nontrivial topology has been extensively studied in condensed matter physics and related areas. Recently, this concept has been successfully extended to active matter systems, but experimental realizations have thus far relied on the chirality of the active particles, which limits design capabilities. Here we report a controlled realization of topological edge states in dense bacterial suspension, induced by microfabricated geometry instead of the bacteria's chirality. By constructing networks made of directional channels, we show the edge localization and edge flow of bacteria, which can be associated with nontrivial topology through theoretical modelling. If time allows, we will discuss not only the obtained results but also our perspectives on open problems.

Ref)
Y. Uchida, D. Nishiguchi, and K. A. Takeuchi, arXiv:2601.08243

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