CaltechAUTHORS
Published April 7, 2025 | Version Published
Journal Article Open

The 2025 motile active matter roadmap

Creators

  • 1. ROR icon Forschungszentrum Jülich
  • 2. ROR icon Princeton University
  • 3. ROR icon Center for Systems Biology Dresden
  • 4. ROR icon University of California, San Diego
  • 5. ROR icon CY Cergy Paris University
  • 6. ROR icon Institut Lumière Matière
  • 7. Laboratoire PMMH-ESPCI, UMR 7636 CNRS-PSL-Research University, Sorbonne Université, Université Paris Cité, 75005 Paris, France
  • 8. ROR icon Institut Universitaire de France
  • 9. ROR icon University of Cambridge
  • 10. ROR icon TU Darmstadt
  • 11. ROR icon University of Amsterdam
  • 12. ROR icon ETH Zurich
  • 13. ROR icon Sapienza University of Rome
  • 14. ROR icon University of Konstanz
  • 15. ROR icon University of California, Santa Barbara
  • 16. ROR icon Leipzig University
  • 17. ROR icon University of Haifa
  • 18. ROR icon Weizmann Institute of Science
  • 19. ROR icon Institute for Complex Systems
  • 20. ROR icon California Institute of Technology
  • 21. ROR icon University of Basel

Abstract

Activity and autonomous motion are fundamental aspects of many living and engineering systems. Here, the scale of biological agents covers a wide range, from nanomotors, cytoskeleton, and cells, to insects, fish, birds, and people. Inspired by biological active systems, various types of autonomous synthetic nano- and micromachines have been designed, which provide the basis for multifunctional, highly responsive, intelligent active materials. A major challenge for understanding and designing active matter is their inherent non-equilibrium nature due to persistent energy consumption, which invalidates equilibrium concepts such as free energy, detailed balance, and time-reversal symmetry. Furthermore, interactions in ensembles of active agents are often non-additive and non-reciprocal. An important aspect of biological agents is their ability to sense the environment, process this information, and adjust their motion accordingly. It is an important goal for the engineering of micro-robotic systems to achieve similar functionality. Many fundamental properties of motile active matter are by now reasonably well understood and under control. Thus, the ground is now prepared for the study of physical aspects and mechanisms of motion in complex environments, the behavior of systems with new physical features like chirality, the development of novel micromachines and microbots, the emergent collective behavior and swarming of intelligent self-propelled particles, and particular features of microbial systems. The vast complexity of phenomena and mechanisms involved in the self-organization and dynamics of motile active matter poses major challenges, which can only be addressed by a truly interdisciplinary effort involving scientists from biology, chemistry, ecology, engineering, mathematics, and physics. The 2025 motile active matter roadmap of Journal of Physics: Condensed Matter reviews the current state of the art of the field and provides guidance for further progress in this fascinating research area.

Copyright and License

© 2025 The Author(s). Published by IOP Publishing Ltd.

Original content from this work may be used under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 license. Any further distribution of this work must maintain attribution to the author(s) and the title of the work, journal citation and DOI.

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Additional details

Identifiers

PMCID
PMC11836640

Related works

Describes
Journal Article: PMC11836640 (PMCID)

Funding

National Science Foundation
CBET-2127563
National Science Foundation
DMR-2011750
National Science Foundation
CBET-1934199
Agence Nationale de la Recherche
ANR-16-IDEX-0008
European Union
955910
Agence Nationale de la Recherche
ANR-20-CE30-0034 BACMAG
Agence Nationale de la Recherche
ANR-22-CE30
European Research Council
682367
Institut Pierre-Gilles de Gennes pour la Microfluidique
Agence Nationale de la Recherche
ANR-10-EQPX-34
Institut Universitaire de France
Wellcome Trust
207510/Z/17/Z
Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation
7523
John Templeton Foundation
7523
European Union
101106500
Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council
EP/T000961/1
European Union
101001514
European Research Council
834615
Swiss National Science Foundation
203203
Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation
2919
Simons Foundation
216179
National Science Foundation
DMR-2041459
European Union
955910
Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft
432421051
Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft
422037984
European Research Council
770964
Israel Science Foundation
1727/20
Israel Science Foundation
1574/24
European Research Council
785932
Ministero dell'università e della ricerca
PRIN2020 2020PFCXPE
Swiss National Science Foundation
TMCG-3_213801
Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft
DR 982/6-1
Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft
SPP 2389

Dates

Accepted
2025-01-21
Available
2025-02-19
Published online

Caltech Custom Metadata

Caltech groups
Division of Biology and Biological Engineering (BBE)
Publication Status
Published