Luiza Angheluta

Abstract Wave-topology interactions underlie phenomena across physics, from condensed matter to cosmology, with the Aharonov-Bohm (AB) effect providing a paradigmatic example. Classical analogues in fluid dynamics have shown that travelling surface waves scattered off vortices develop wavefront dislocations, with topological effects studied close to the vortex core.

We present a mesoscale field theory unifying the modeling of growth, elasticity, and dislocations in quasicrystals. The theory is based on the amplitudes entering their density-wave representation. We introduce a free energy functional for complex amplitudes and assume nonconserved dissipative dynamics to describe their evolution.

T1 transitions, also called cell intercalations, are important sources of fluidization of epithelial cell monolayers. We use a multiphase field model to quantify this tissue fluidization in terms of the relative dispersion of cells and characterize the T1 flow profile. We show that the ensemble-averaged flow profile of a T1 transition has a saddle-point pattern accompanied by a localized burst in cell speed.