2014/03/25 by Raphaël Jeanneret, Denis Bartolo
Chemistry · Physics and Astronomy · #Advanced NMR Techniques and Applications #Atomic and Subatomic Physics Research #Computer science #Echo (communications protocol) #Materials science #Physics #Quantum, superfluid, helium dynamics #cond-mat.soft #cond-mat.stat-mech #physics.flu-dyn
paper · pdf · doi:10.1038/ncomms4474
published as Nat. Commun., 5, 3474, (2014)
openalex publication_date 2014/03/25 · arxiv created 2014/07/07 · arxiv updated 2014/07/08 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/05
We demonstrate an archetypal Loschmidt-echo experiment involving thousands of droplets which interact in a reversible fashion via a viscous fluid. Firstly, we show that, unlike equilibrium systems, periodically driven microfluidic emulsions self-organize and geometrically protect their macroscopic reversibility. Self-organization is not merely dynamical; we show that it has a clear structural signature akin to that found in a mixture of molecular liquids. Secondly, we show that, above a maximal shaking amplitude, structural order and reversibility are lost simultaneously in the form of 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.