Active matter encompasses out-of-equilibrium systems whose microscopic constituents exert non-conservative self-propulsion forces on their environment. The self-organization of active units into complex structures is observed at all scales in the living world, from bacterial ecosystems to flocks of birds. Furthermore, in recent years, physicists an...
The usual laws of thermodynamics are robust and can be applied to large range of macroscopic systems. However, when thermal fluctuations are on the same scale as the studied phenomena, these laws only describe the average behaviour. While it is impossible to macroscopicaly extract work from thermal fluctuations, this limit can be overcome by adapti...
How does aggregate coordination occur in complex systems? At odds with the conventional "homo economicus" paradigm of classical economics, in which a unique and optimal steady-state is assumed to be reached by rational agents, spin-glasses have demonstrated that simple problems may yield an overwhelming number of solutions when heterogeneous intera...
One may argue that the role of the physicist is to describe the universe from rules and laws. However, while the behaviour of simple physical settings can be derived from first principles, this step becomes increasingly difficult when systems gain in complexity. A second approach consists in characterizing the response of systems to harmonic or sto...
Molecular dynamics simulations provide valuable insights into the behavior of molecular systems at the atomic level. However, large-scale Molecular Dynamics simulations face some limitations. Firstly, the use of physically-motivated empirical force fields may not accurately capture some quantum mechanical effects (reactivity, quantum nuclear effect...
Active matter is a broad class of materials within which individual entities, the active particles, consume energy in order to perform movement. These materials are at the intersection of many distinct fields of research, such as biology, engineering, and physics, and have thus attracted considerable attention. Because of their perpetual consumptio...
Proteins, the fundamental building blocks of life, are involved in virtually all biological processes, performing a myriad of functions. The design of artificial proteins, optimized for specific tasks, is a significant challenge with far-reaching implications in fields such as medicine and industry. Given the wealth of data available in protein dat...
Grâce à l'évolution des techniques d'observation et de manipulation à l'échelle microscopique, de nombreuses expériences de thermodynamique hors de l'équilibre ont vu le jour depuis 1950. Ces expériences ont permis de mettre en évidence et de tester expérimentalement de nombreux théorèmes de thermodynamique comme le principe de Landauer. Cependant,...
Random transport phenomena are ubiquitous in physical systems, spanning all temporal and spatial scales and occurring in diverse fields, from biology to mechanics. Examples include the diffusion of photons in a heterogeneous medium, the motion of a molecular motor along a DNA strand, and the evolution of financial assets. Understanding these phenom...
In many situations of biological interest (molecular motors, molecules in an intracellular environment, bacteria...) or from physical chemistry (self-propelled particles, colloids in a polymer solution...), the classical tools for the study of diffusion (Fick's law, Brownian motion) do not offer an adequate description of the transport of matter. I...
