Dresden 2026 – scientific programme

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DY: Fachverband Dynamik und Statistische Physik

DY 29: Active Matter IV (joint session DY/BP/CPP)

DY 29.4: Talk

Tuesday, March 10, 2026, 14:45–15:00, ZEU/0160

Non-reciprocal multifarious self-organization — •Saeed Osat¹ and Ramin Golestanian² — ¹Institute for Theoretical Physics IV, University of Stuttgart, Heisenbergstraße 3, 70569 Stuttgart, Germany — ²Max Planck Institute for Dynamics and Self-Organization (MPI-DS), 37077 Goettingen, Germany

Biological systems exhibit a unique ability to design diverse structures from a shared set of building blocks, with a plethora of proteins made from a limited set of amino acids as a prime example. Furthermore, these systems often use building blocks efficiently by introducing transformations between different structures. A structure might undergo structural transformations to form a new structure with different functional purposes, without the need to discard the current structure and start anew. To unravel this mystery, one must examine the underlying non-equilibrium processes that make this shape-shifting behavior feasible.

Here, we leverage non-reciprocal interactions between building blocks to provide a foundation for designing dynamic structures. We used a multifarious self-assembly (MSA) model, which is the molecular counterpart of the Hopfield associative memory. By upgrading the MSA model to its non-equilibrium counterpart with non-reciprocal interactions, we introduce the ability to not only self-assemble different structures on demand but also facilitate shifts and transformations that lead to shape-shifting behavior.

Keywords: Non-reciprocal interactions; Multifarious self-assembly; self-organization; shape-shifter