Microscopic simulations of flexible active nematics on curved surfaces.

Active nematics are liquid crystals which are driven out of equilibrium by energy-dissipating active stresses. Experiments and theory have demonstrated that in such systems the ordered nematic state is unstable to the proliferation of topological defects, which undergo birth, streaming dynamics, and annihilation to yield a seemingly chaotic dynamical steady state. Many biological systems consist of active agents confined on surfaces with inhomogeneous Gaussian curvature; yet we have limited theoretical understanding of such systems. Gaussian curvature couples to the elastic energy and topology of a nematic, thus altering the defect statistics in the system. This talk will describe computational results and comparison with theory for active nematics on curved manifolds, using a recently developed microscopic model that accounts for the inherent flexibility of the active filaments.