Nambu-Goldstone modes in non-equilibrium systems from AdS/CFT correspondence

We investigate dispersion relation of Nambu-Goldstone modes in a dissipative system realized by the AdS/CFT correspondence. We employ the D3/D7 model which represents $$ \mathcal{N} $$ N = 4 supersymmetric Yang-Mills theory coupled to $$ \mathcal{N} $$ N = 2 flavor fields. If we consider massless quarks in the presence of an external magnetic field, the system exhibits the phase transition associated with the spontaneous symmetry breaking of the chiral symmetry. We find that the Nambu-Goldstone modes show a diffusive behavior in the dispersion relation, which agrees with that found with the effective field theory approach. We also study a non-equilibrium steady state which has a constant current flow in the presence of an external electric field. In a non-equilibrium steady state, we find that the Nambu-Goldstone modes show a linear dispersion in the real part of the frequency in addition to the diffusive behavior. Moreover, we analyze the linear dispersion of the Nambu-Goldstone modes in the hydrodynamic approximation. As a result, we find that the linear dispersion can be written as the analytic functions of quantities in the dual field theory. Our results imply that such a linear dispersion is a characteristic behavior of Nambu-Goldstone modes in a non-equilibrium steady state.

Active gels, heavy tails, and the cytoskeleton

The eukaryotic cell's cytoskeleton is a prototypical example of an active material: objects embedded within it are driven by molecular motors acting on the cytoskeleton, leading to anomalous diffusive behavior....

Channel-length dependence of particle diffusivity in confinement

Understanding the diffusive behavior of particles and large molecules in channels is of fundamental importance in biological and synthetic systems, such as channel proteins, nanopores, and nanofluidics. Although theoretical and...

Rheological Enhancement of Artificial Sputum Medium

This investigation proposes a synthetic biofluid, artificial sputum medium (ASM) and xanthan gum (XG), that mimics the mucus from a patient with cystic fibrosis, and investigates the rheological properties both macroscopically and microscopically. Macroscopic rheological characterization cannot address the heterogeneity or the behavior of particle transport inside the mucus. Microscopic rheology enables the characterization of the microenvironment by using microparticles as probes.The addition of XG to ASM provides a tunable parameter that enables the mechanical properties to be consistent with real mucus. Particles that were suspended in a media of ASM with XG displayed a subdiffusive behavior at short timescales with a diffusive exponent that decreases with an increase in concentration of XG. At long timescales, particles that were suspended in ASM+XG with a concentration of XG of 0.1% to 0.4% displayed diffusive behavior. While in more concentrated samples (0.5% and 1.0%), the particles were constrained inside local elastic “cages”. The microscopic moduli that were calculated showed consistently lower moduli than rotational rheometry. This discrepancy suggests that the solutions of XG have a hierarchical structure that better represents the weakly associated microstructure of mucus that is found in real sputum.