In active matter systems, individual constituents convert energy into non-conservative forces
or motion at the microscale, leading to morphological features and transport properties that …

Collective cell migration is a key driver of embryonic development, wound healing, and
some types of cancer invasion. Here, we provide a physical perspective of the mechanisms …

Swarm robotics deals with the design, construction, and deployment of large groups of
robots that coordinate and cooperatively solve a problem or perform a task. It takes …

The remarkable processes that characterize living organisms, such as motility, self-healing
and reproduction, are fuelled by a continuous injection of energy at the microscale. The field …

Active materials represent a new class of condensed matter in which motile elements may
collectively form dynamic, global structures out of equilibrium,,. Here, we present a general …

The study of systems with sustained energy uptake and dissipation at the scale of the
constituent particles is an area of central interest in nonequilibrium statistical physics …

Differently from passive Brownian particles, active particles, also known as self-propelled
Brownian particles or microswimmers and nanoswimmers, are capable of taking up energy …

Active matter physics is about systems in which energy is dissipated at some local level to
produce work. This is a generic situation, particularly in the living world but not only. What is …

Liquid crystals (LCs) are ubiquitous in display technologies. The orientational ordering in the
nematic phase of LCs gives rise to structural anisotropy, the ability to form topological …

These lecture notes are designed to provide a brief introduction into the phenomenology of
active matter and to present some of the analytical tools used to rationalize the emergent …