Geometrically protected reversibility in hydrodynamic Loschmidt-echo experiments

Raphaël Jeanneret and Denis Bartolo ()
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Raphaël Jeanneret: PMMH, CNRS UMR 7636, ESPCI ParisTech, Université Paris 6, Université Paris 7, 10, rue Vauquelin
Denis Bartolo: PMMH, CNRS UMR 7636, ESPCI ParisTech, Université Paris 6, Université Paris 7, 10, rue Vauquelin

Nature Communications, 2014, vol. 5, issue 1, 1-8

Abstract: Abstract When periodically driven, a number of markedly different systems (colloids, droplets, grains, flux lines) have revealed a transition from a reversible to an irreversible dynamics that hardly depends on the very nature of the interacting objects. Yet, no clear structural signature has been found for this collective self-organization. Here, we demonstrate an archetypal Loschmidt-echo experiment involving thousands of droplets that interact in a reversible fashion via a viscous fluid. First, we show that periodically driven microfluidic emulsions self-organize and geometrically protect their macroscopic reversibility. Self-organization is not merely dynamical: it has a clear structural signature. Second, we show that, above a maximal shaking amplitude, structural order and reversibility are lost simultaneously through a first-order non-equilibrium phase transition. We account for this discontinuous transition in terms of a memory-loss process. Finally, we suggest potential applications of microfluidic echo as a robust tool to tailor colloidal self-assembly at large scales.

Date: 2014
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:nat:natcom:v:5:y:2014:i:1:d:10.1038_ncomms4474

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DOI: 10.1038/ncomms4474

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