Marco Musacchio
All projects

Frictional cooling in active matter

We have identified a spontaneous cooling phenomenon in active matter, termed self-sustained frictional cooling, arising from the interplay between activity and dry friction, without the need for an external thermal bath. Through experiments and simulations on active granular robots, we demonstrate how this mechanism can lead to the formation of dense, arrested clusters, opening new perspectives for controlling the dynamical and structural properties of robotic swarms.

2024-2025

Experimental setup and analysis. Top: robots moving around, viewed from above, with white dots indicating their direction of motion. In the right panel, particles are coloured according to their speed: fast (hot) particles are red, while slow (cold) particles are blue. The snapshot shows the coexistence of a cold cluster within a hot particle environment. Bottom: side view of the robots.
Experimental setup and analysis. Top: robots moving around, viewed from above, with white dots indicating their direction of motion. In the right panel, particles are coloured according to their speed: fast (hot) particles are red, while slow (cold) particles are blue. The snapshot shows the coexistence of a cold cluster within a hot particle environment. Bottom: side view of the robots.photo: HHU / Marco Musacchio

For more informations look at:

ARTICLE link: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-025-62626-9

PRESS RELEASE link: https://www.hhu.de/en/detail-research-news/friction-which-cools