Gerhard Gompper, Howard A Stone, Christina Kurzthaler, David Saintillan, Fernado Peruani, Dmitry A Fedosov, Thorsten Auth, Cecile Cottin-Bizonne, Christophe Ybert, Eric Clément, Thierry Darnige, Anke Lindner, Raymond E Goldstein, Benno Liebchen, Jack Binysh, Anton Souslov, Lucio Isa, Roberto di Leonardo, Giacomo Frangipane, Hongri Gu, Bradley J Nelson, Fridtjof Brauns, M Cristina Marchetti, Frank Cichos, Veit-Lorenz Heuthe, Clemens Bechinger, Amos Korman, Ofer Feinerman, Andrea Cavagna, Irene Giardina, Hannah Jeckel, Knut Drescher
Author Information
Gerhard Gompper: Theoretical Physics of Living Matter, Institute for Advanced Simulation, Forschungszentrum Jülich, D-52425 Jülich, Germany. ORCID
Howard A Stone: Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ 08544, United States of America. ORCID
Christina Kurzthaler: Max Planck Institute for the Physics of Complex Systems, Center for Systems Biology Dresden, Cluster of Excellence, Physics of Life, TU Dresden, Dresden, Germany. ORCID
David Saintillan: Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, University of California San Diego, La Jolla, CA 92093, United States of America. ORCID
Fernado Peruani: CY Cergy Paris University, 95302 Cergy-Pontoise, France. ORCID
Dmitry A Fedosov: Theoretical Physics of Living Matter, Institute for Advanced Simulation, Forschungszentrum Jülich, D-52425 Jülich, Germany. ORCID
Thorsten Auth: Theoretical Physics of Living Matter, Institute for Advanced Simulation, Forschungszentrum Jülich, D-52425 Jülich, Germany. ORCID
Cecile Cottin-Bizonne: Université de Lyon, Université Claude Bernard Lyon 1, CNRS, Institut Lumière Matière, Villeurbanne, France. ORCID
Christophe Ybert: Université de Lyon, Université Claude Bernard Lyon 1, CNRS, Institut Lumière Matière, Villeurbanne, France.
Eric Clément: Laboratoire PMMH-ESPCI, UMR 7636 CNRS-PSL-Research University, Sorbonne Université, Université Paris Cité, 75005 Paris, France. ORCID
Thierry Darnige: Laboratoire PMMH-ESPCI, UMR 7636 CNRS-PSL-Research University, Sorbonne Université, Université Paris Cité, 75005 Paris, France.
Anke Lindner: Laboratoire PMMH-ESPCI, UMR 7636 CNRS-PSL-Research University, Sorbonne Université, Université Paris Cité, 75005 Paris, France. ORCID
Raymond E Goldstein: Department of Applied Mathematics and Theoretical Physics, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, United Kingdom. ORCID
Benno Liebchen: Technische Universität Darmstadt, 64289 Darmstadt, Germany. ORCID
Jack Binysh: Institute of Physics, Universiteit van Amsterdam, Science Park 904, 1098 XH Amsterdam, The Netherlands.
Anton Souslov: T.C.M. Group, Cavendish Laboratory, University of Cambridge, Cambridge CB3 0HE, United Kingdom. ORCID
Lucio Isa: Laboratory for Soft Materials and Interfaces, Department of Materials, ETH Zurich, 8093 Zurich, Switzerland. ORCID
Roberto di Leonardo: Dipartimento di Fisica, Sapienza Università di Roma, Rome, Italy.
Giacomo Frangipane: Dipartimento di Fisica, Sapienza Università di Roma, Rome, Italy. ORCID
Hongri Gu: Department of Physics, University of Konstanz, Konstanz, Germany.
Bradley J Nelson: Institute of Robotics and Intelligent Systems, ETH Zürich, Zurich, Switzerland.
Fridtjof Brauns: Kavli Institute for Theoretical Physics, University of California Santa Barbara, Santa Barbara, CA 93106, United States of America. ORCID
M Cristina Marchetti: Department of Physics, University of California Santa Barbara, Santa Barbara, CA 93106, United States of America. ORCID
Frank Cichos: Molecular Nanophotonics, Leipzig University, 04013 Leipzig, Germany. ORCID
Veit-Lorenz Heuthe: Department of Physics, University of Konstanz, Konstanz, Germany. ORCID
Clemens Bechinger: Department of Physics, University of Konstanz, Konstanz, Germany. ORCID
Amos Korman: Department of Computer Science, University of Haifa, Haifa, Israel.
Ofer Feinerman: Department of Physics of Complex Systems, Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot, Israel.
Andrea Cavagna: Istituto Sistemi Complessi (ISC-CNR), Rome, Italy.
Irene Giardina: Istituto Sistemi Complessi (ISC-CNR), Rome, Italy.
Hannah Jeckel: Department of Biology and Biological Engineering, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA 91125, United States of America. ORCID
Knut Drescher: Biozentrum, University of Basel, 4056 Basel, Switzerland. ORCID
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.
