About Me
Welcome to my academic website. I am a physicist specializing in soft matter, active matter, and nonequilibrium statistical physics. I received my Ph.D. with Eric Weeks from Emory University in 2022 and later worked as a postdoc at Montpellier with Ludovic Berthier until 2024. Now I am working as a researcher in Chengdu China.
My work focuses on understanding interesting structures, dynamics, and nonequilibrium phenomenon, such as avalanches, collective behaviors, aging, yielding, memory, etc in soft complex systems. Recently I am combining experiments and simulations to study several fascinating complex systems such as crumpled sheets, granular beads, active granular disks, active emulsions, glassy systems, and nerual networks.
When I'm not in the lab or classroom, I enjoy watching PANDAS!!! and FOODS!!! and watching pandas having foods.
Research Interests
Active granular experiments and simulations
Image: Active Granular Systems
I am now collaborating with Yujie Wang, and have access to a range of powerful facilities such as vibrational platform, CT scanner, confocal microscope, AFM, etc. Currently I am interested in active granular systems, including active disks and active emulsions, where individual particles consume energy to generate motion or forces independent of thermal fluctuations. These systems offer fascinating experimental platforms to explore how self-propulsion and internal activity reshape our understanding of classic nonequilibrium phenomena. Phenomena such as yielding, aging, and memory effects may exhibit novel characteristics when energy input occurs at the particle scale rather than through external fields. Studying these systems is important because they bridge the gap between non-living matter and biological systems, potentially revealing universal principles governing collective behavior across scales. Furthermore, active granular materials could inspire innovative applications in soft robotics, self-healing materials, and programmable matter, where controlled energy dissipation and emergent organization can be harnessed for adaptive functionality. Understanding the fundamental physics of these active systems may ultimately provide insights into broader questions about self-organization, dissipative structures, and the thermodynamics of life itself.
Langevin dynamics simulations
Image: Langevin Dynamics Simulation
I am interested in leveraging modified Langevin dynamics to explore complex systems beyond traditional equilibrium frameworks. By incorporating active forces at the particle level or implementing colored noise with temporal correlations, I investigate how these modifications fundamentally alter system behavior and emergent properties. This approach is particularly valuable because it bridges theoretical physics with real-world phenomena where perfect white noise assumptions break down. The introduction of active forces mimics biological entities that consume energy to generate motion, while colored noise better represents realistic environments with memory effects and temporal correlations. These modifications are significant as they can lead to counterintuitive phenomena such as noise-induced phase transitions, enhanced diffusion, and novel pattern formation that cannot emerge in classical systems. Understanding these dynamics has profound implications for soft matter physics, biophysics, and materials science, potentially enabling the design of responsive materials with programmable properties. Moreover, this work contributes to fundamental questions about the principles governing energy transduction and information processing in both living and synthetic active systems.
Special complex systems
Image: Complex Systems
I am interested in extending statistical physics frameworks to diverse complex systems including deep neural networks, wildfires, earthquakes, economic markets, human crowds, and social networks. Currently, I'm collaborating on molecular dynamics simulations to model deep neural networks, investigating how principles such as phase transitions, criticality, and emergent behavior manifest in these computational systems. This cross-disciplinary approach is profoundly important because it reveals universal organizing principles that transcend specific domains, suggesting that seemingly unrelated complex systems may operate under similar mathematical rules. By applying concepts like symmetry breaking, renormalization group theory, and universality classes to these diverse systems, we can identify common patterns in how information propagates, how collective behaviors emerge from individual interactions, and how systems self-organize at the edge of chaos. These insights are not merely academic—they could lead to breakthroughs in network robustness, prediction of extreme events, and optimization of artificial intelligence architectures. Furthermore, uncovering these shared principles advances our fundamental understanding of complexity itself, potentially unifying disparate fields under a common theoretical framework and revealing deeper connections between natural, social, and technological systems.
Selected Publications
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Research Team
Siqi Wang
Ph.D. Student
Interested in active emulsion and bacteria experiment.
Ge Ji
Master Student
Interested in crumpled sheet and cyclic shear granular system experiment.
Gen Li
Master Student
Interested in vibration bidisperse granular beads experiment.
Xinzhu Xie
Master Student
Interested in active granular disk experiment.
Tong Sun
Master Student
Interested in active granular disk experiment.
Join Our Team
I welcome collaborations and students interested in these research directions to join the team. If you're passionate about soft matter physics, active systems, or complex systems, please reach out!
Collaborations
Current Collaborations
- Ludovic Berthier - ESPCI, Paris
- Eric Weeks - Emory University, Atlanta
- Michael Moshe - Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Jerusalem
- Yujie Wang - Chengdu University of Technology, Chengdu
- Gang Huang - Chengdu University of Technology, Chengdu
Past Collaborations
- Nicholas Bailey - Roskilde University, Denmark
- Daniel Sussman - Emory University, Atlanta
- Juliane Klamser - Université de Montpellier, Montpellier
Useful Resources
Software Tools for Physics Research
Here are some useful open-source software tools for molecular dynamics simulations and data visualization:
- RUMD - Roskilde University Molecular Dynamics package, optimized for GPU acceleration.
- LAMMPS - Large-scale Atomic/Molecular Massively Parallel Simulator, highly flexible for various simulation types.
- GROMACS - Versatile package designed for biomolecular systems but useful for many soft matter applications.
- ESPResSo - Extensible Simulation Package for Research on Soft Matter, specializing in coarse-grained models.
- HOOMD-blue - Highly Optimized Object-oriented Many-particle Dynamics, GPU-accelerated for large systems.
- OVITO - Open Visualization Tool, for analyzing and visualizing particle-based simulation data.
- VMD - Visual Molecular Dynamics, visualization program for displaying and analyzing trajectory data.
- ParaView - Open-source, multi-platform data analysis and visualization application.
- MDAnalysis - Python library for analyzing molecular dynamics trajectories.
- Freud - Python library for analyzing particle simulation data, with a focus on soft matter systems.
Recommended Reading
Key review papers in soft matter physics and related fields:
- "Mechanical Memories in Solids, from Disorder to Design"
- "Theoretical perspective on the glass transition and amorphous materials"
- "Yielding and plasticity in amorphous solids"
- "Deformation and flow of amorphous solids: An updated review of mesoscale elastoplastic models"
- "Yield Stress Materials in Soft Condensed Matter"
- "Soft matter physics of the ground beneath our feet"
Additional resources:
Contact Information
Email: yonglun.jiang@icloud.com, yonglun.jiang@cdut.edu.cn