Active nematics refers to systems made of a collection of elongated units, each of which consumes ambient or stored energy in order to move. The authors experimentally and numerically study an active nematic system in confinement finding a defect-free regime of shear flow, and defect nucleation under certain boundary conditions, highlighting the importance of topological defects in controlling confined active flows.
- Jérôme Hardoüin
- Rian Hughes
- Francesc Sagués