2025/11/27 by Nerson, Tristan, Hüpfl, Jakob, Ferise, Clément +5
Materials Science · Physics and Astronomy · #Applied Physics (physics.app-ph) #FOS: Physical sciences #Metamaterials and Metasurfaces Applications #Optics (physics.optics) #Orbital Angular Momentum in Optics #Random lasers and scattering media
paper · doi:10.48550/arxiv.2511.22279
openalex publication_date 2025/11/27 · openalex created_date 2025/12/03 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
Radiation forces and torques enable the manipulation of objects with acoustic and electromagnetic waves. Yet, harnessing them in complex scattering media remains a formidable challenge, especially when multiple objects must be controlled under competing objectives. Here, we demonstrate that sound or light can be shaped to tailor momentum transfer to multiple objects simultaneously in a complex scattering medium. For a single object, our theory yields the maximal achievable force or torque; for multiple objects, it produces Pareto-optimal actuation and exact bounds on the simultaneous realization of incompatible objectives. This opens new applications for wave tweezers, enabling selective and precise manipulation of objects within complex media, ranging from the handling of cells, organoids, or microrobots, to targeted drug delivery in biological media.