Bacterial Glass Transition

Fuente: arXiv
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Autori principali: Maliet, Martin, Fix-Boulier, Nicolas, Berthier, Ludovic, Deforet, Maxime
Natura: Preprint
Pubblicazione: 2025
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author Maliet, Martin
Fix-Boulier, Nicolas
Berthier, Ludovic
Deforet, Maxime
author_facet Maliet, Martin
Fix-Boulier, Nicolas
Berthier, Ludovic
Deforet, Maxime
contents Bacterial assemblies exhibit rich collective behaviors that control their biological functions, making them a relevant object of study from an active matter physics perspective. Dense bacterial suspensions self-organize into distinct physical phases with intriguing dynamical properties. Here, we study dense two-dimensional films of swimming bacteria using advanced imaging techniques and machine learning. By varying density, we uncover a bacterial glass transition, a direct active matter analogue of equilibrium glass transitions in colloidal and molecular fluids. The transition is marked by a dramatic slowdown of dynamics with minimal structural change. Strong dynamic heterogeneity emerges in space and time, leading to an anomalous violation of the Stokes-Einstein relation and a growing dynamic correlation length, universally observed across five bacterial strains. Our results establish that bacterial colonies exhibit glassy dynamics, but their living, active nature gives them unique properties, paving the way for new research regarding how non-equilibrium physics impacts biology.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2504_04205
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Bacterial Glass Transition
Maliet, Martin
Fix-Boulier, Nicolas
Berthier, Ludovic
Deforet, Maxime
Soft Condensed Matter
Quantitative Methods
Bacterial assemblies exhibit rich collective behaviors that control their biological functions, making them a relevant object of study from an active matter physics perspective. Dense bacterial suspensions self-organize into distinct physical phases with intriguing dynamical properties. Here, we study dense two-dimensional films of swimming bacteria using advanced imaging techniques and machine learning. By varying density, we uncover a bacterial glass transition, a direct active matter analogue of equilibrium glass transitions in colloidal and molecular fluids. The transition is marked by a dramatic slowdown of dynamics with minimal structural change. Strong dynamic heterogeneity emerges in space and time, leading to an anomalous violation of the Stokes-Einstein relation and a growing dynamic correlation length, universally observed across five bacterial strains. Our results establish that bacterial colonies exhibit glassy dynamics, but their living, active nature gives them unique properties, paving the way for new research regarding how non-equilibrium physics impacts biology.
title Bacterial Glass Transition
topic Soft Condensed Matter
Quantitative Methods
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2504.04205