# gst: foliated by invariant quadrics, outer contact billiards.

<< ️(AA) introduce outer contact billiards as an odd dimensional counterpart to outer symplectic billiards. Until now, outer billiards have only been considered in even dimensional symplectic vector spaces. By projectivizing outer symplectic billiards, (They) obtain outer contact billiards, where the affine midpoint condition descends to its projective analog, namely harmonic conjugation. (They) prove that outer contact billiards generate contactomorphisms. >>

<< ️For quadratic surfaces in RP^3, (AA) show that the correspondence is completely integrable: its domain is foliated by invariant quadrics and, on each leaf, the dynamics is determined by the iteration of an explicit linear transformation. (They) also establish two rigidity results for periodic trajectories: outer contact billiards admit no 3-periodic orbits and, among quadratic tables, only one admits 4-periodic orbits. >>

Ana Chavez Caliz, Connor Jackman. Outer Contact Billiards. arXiv: 2608.19393v1 [math.DS]. Aug 19, 2026.

https://arxiv.org/abs/2608.19393

Also: billiard, in https://www.inkgmr.net/kwrds.html 

Keywords: gst, billiard, outer contact billiards, symplectic billiards, harmonic conjugation, contactomorphisms, foliated domain. 

# gst: dissipative self-assembly of colloidal suspensions.

<< Suspensions of paramagnetic colloids exhibit kinetic arrest in strong magnetic fields. Through a dissipative process of toggling the field on and off, suspensions self-assemble into dense and dynamic steady-state phases. >>

<< (AA) construct a phase diagram using 𝑘-means clustering analysis based on domain elongation, α-shapes, contour metrics, and the degree of phase separation. (They) identify six characteristic structural regimes: a structureless phase, an arrested structure, sheets, ribbons, a spiky phase, and a transient fluid-fluid regime. >>

<< (AA) further report the distribution and alignment of domains and the generality of the results. (They) model self-assembled domain shapes using an equilibrium mean-field magnetostatic energy calculation, which predicts the surprising emergence of highly anisotropic structures driven by the sample's confinement. >>

Jason Conradt, Eric M. Furst. Dissipative self-assembly of colloidal suspensions. Phys. Rev. E 114, 025416. Aug 21, 2026.

https://journals.aps.org/pre/abstract/10.1103/8h2w-vhcn

arXiv: 2603.14637v1 [cond-mat.soft]. 

https://arxiv.org/abs/2603.14637

Also: dissipation, self-assembly, colloids, in https://www.inkgmr.net/kwrds.html 

Keywords: gst, dissipation, self-assembly, colloids, anisotropic structures, steady-state phases. 

# gst: skimming transition in flexible granular sweeping.

<< ️A flexible body placed in a steady flow bends to reduce drag. This self-streamlining is a hallmark of fluid-structure interaction (FSI). Granular-structure interaction is equally ubiquitous in nature. However, it remains poorly understood. >>

<< ️Thus, (AA) investigate inertial granular-structure interaction (IGSI). Specifically, ejection induced by a flexible plate sweeping a granular bed is experimentally examined. (They) find that a faster sweep results in less ejection, particularly for a flexible plate. >> 

<< ️To understand the underlying physics of this behavior, a dimensionless number Sk is introduced as the ratio of the plate elastic timescale to the sweep timescale. At Sk≲1, the plate deflection follows the self-streamlining law of FSI and induces substantial ejection. At Sk≳1, on the other hand, the plate skims the bed and the mass of ejected grains decreases sharply. Sk organizes IGSI as the granular counterpart of FSI. >>

Y. Ochi, H. Katsuragi. Skimming transition in flexible granular sweeping. arXiv: 2608.15069v1 [cond-mat.soft]. Aug 15, 2026.

https://arxiv.org/abs/2608.15069

Also: grain, transition, in https://www.inkgmr.net/kwrds.html 

Keywords: gst, grain, transitions, fluid-structure interaction (FSI), inertial granular-structure interaction (IGSI)

# behav: amoeboid swimming of active vesicles.

<< ️(AA) investigate the shape dynamics and migration of weakly deflated active vesicles driven by processes acting either directly in the membrane or transmitted by the cytoskeleton. For a force-free vesicle, local membrane incompressibility suppresses rigid-body translation, so that migration arises from time-dependent shape deformations. Assuming small excess area enables a systematic analysis of the coupled deformation and migration dynamics in free space, i.e. in the absence of substrate adhesion or confinement. >>

<< ️Depending on the strength and frequency of the activity, the vesicle exhibits several dynamical regimes, including synchronized oscillations, quasiperiodic shape changes, transitions between non-propelling and propelling states, and intermittent motion. >>

Reiner Kree, Annette Zippelius. Amoeboid swimming of active vesicles. arXiv: 2607.14714v1 [cond-mat.soft]. Jul 16, 2026.

https://arxiv.org/abs/2607.14714

Also: behav, transition, swim, microswimmers, in https://www.inkgmr.net/kwrds.html 

Keywords: behavior, transitions, 

swim, vesicles, weakly deflated active vesicles, migration, time-dependent shape deformations, synchronized oscillations, quasiperiodic shape changes, transitions between non-propelling, propelling states, intermittent motion. 

# gst: flip rate prediction in the double pendulum.

<< ️The intermediate-energy double pendulum is a prototypical chaotic system. Despite its irregular motion, it exhibits recurrent flips - events in which one of the arms passes over the top. >>

<< ️(AA) develop a statistical prediction for the mean flip rate in terms of phase space flux. Applying this flux-based approach to the equal-mass, equal arm ("egalitarian") double pendulum, (They) find excellent agreement between the statistical prediction and numerical simulations: ensemble-averaged flip rates agree at about the 1% level, while even the statistics of individual chaotic trajectories agree at the few-percent level, quantifying the validity of the ergodic approximation. This agreement holds for flips of either arm and over a broad range of energies. This flux-based approach is closely related to that used for the egalitarian three-body system. >>

<< ️A central role is played by the saddle orbits: periodic orbits that tend to the stable saddle eigenmode as the energy approaches the saddle energy from above and approximately follow the ridge of the potential at higher energies. These orbits provide a natural dividing surface for defining flips while avoiding recrossings. Indeed, the resulting distribution of crossing times exhibits a distinct gap. >>

<< ️(AA) also present two alternative simplified dividing surfaces, one of which is based on an accurate analytic approximation to the saddle orbits. >>

Peleg Haham, Barak Kol. Flip rate prediction in the double pendulum. arXiv: 2608.20276v1 [nlin.CD]. Aug 20, 2026.

https://arxiv.org/abs/2608.20276

Also: pendulum, chaos, in https://www.inkgmr.net/kwrds.html 

Keywords: gst, pendulum, double pendulum, chaos, recurrent flips, egalitarian three-body system, saddle orbits, crossing times.

# life: apropos of birth-and-death processes, framework for fluctuating times and counting observables in stochastic excursions.

<< ️Many natural systems exhibit dynamics characterized by alternating phases or recurring sets of states. Describing the fluctuations of such systems over stochastic trajectories is necessary across diverse fields, from biological motors to quantum thermal machines. >>

<< ️In an accompanying Letter, (AA) introduced the notion of stochastic excursions−a framework to analyze out of equilibrium processes via sub-trajectories. Through counting observables, this framework captures finite-time fluctuations and trajectory-level behavior, which provides insights into thermodynamical trade-offs between thermodynamic quantities of interest, such as entropy production and dynamical activity. >>

<< ️In this work, (AA) enhance this formalism by providing a suite of technical results on how to efficiently compute excursion-related quantities. (Their) analytical results provide explicit formulas for general moments of counting variables and excursion duration, as well as their covariance and conditional moments. (They) show that excursion statistics recover full counting statistics results, and uncover a relation between fluctuations of counting observables at single-excursion level and the steady state diffusion coefficient (noise). >> 

<< ️(AA) also discuss a fluctuation theorem for individual excursions and show that it implies a modified thermodynamic uncertainty relation at the excursion level. In addition, (They) explore how analyzing excursions and using the results developed here can yield insights into three problems of interest: the three-qubit absorption refrigerator, cellular sensing, and birth-and-death processes. >>

Guilherme Fiusa, Pedro E. Harunari, Abhaya S. Hegde, et al. Framework for fluctuating times and counting observables in stochastic excursions.

Phys. Rev. E 114, 024129. Aug 13, 2026.

https://journals.aps.org/pre/abstract/10.1103/jydr-1853

arXiv: 2506.05160v3 [cond-mat.stat-mech]. Aug 19, 2026.

https://arxiv.org/abs/2506.05160

Also: Guilherme Fiusa, Pedro E. Harunari, Abhaya S. Hegde, et al. Counting observables in stochastic excursions. Phys. Rev. E 114, L022102 (2026). 

https://journals.aps.org/pre/abstract/10.1103/1blp-2b27

Also: walk, walking, uncertainty, fluctuations, random, noise, behav, Nomads, in https://www.inkgmr.net/kwrds.html 

Keywords: walk, walking, noise, uncertainty, behavior, fluctuations, randomness, stochasticity, stochastic excursions, Nomads. 

# gst: apropos of stretching during transitions, singularities in soft matter systems.

<< ️When a liquid thread pinches off, its neck thins as it separates into two unconnected regions. Using continuum mechanics, we can predict that the neck reaches zero radius in finite time while its curvature grows without bound. Together, the vanishing neck and diverging curvature form a finite-time singularity. >>

<< ️However, a real fluid does not realise these mathematical limits as molecular or material physics takes over once the neck becomes sufficiently small. Similar singularities arise throughout soft matter whenever a smooth continuum description is used at vanishing length scales. >>

<< ️This (AA) review asks what the shrinking region forgets, what it retains, and which material length, time, or stress cuts off the apparent divergence. The dynamics near a singularity often become self-similar, with profiles at different times collapsing onto one shape when rescaled by the shrinking local length. Sometimes that collapse is universal enough that the surrounding geometry and forcing no longer determine the local dynamics. Nonetheless, the measured output could still depend on how the shrinking region is fed by the surrounding flow and on the small-scale physics that finally replaces the ideal divergence. >>

<< ️Complex fluids and active matter change the same local balance by bringing their own timescales into the shrinking region. Beyond interfaces, the same logic applies when the localised object is a stress concentration or a defect in geometry or order rather than a moving surface. Singularities matter because they show where continuum theory stops being the relevant description and how the small-scale cutoff sets the outputs that count in printing, coating, aerosols, and stretchable solids. >>

Vatsal Sanjay. Singularities in Soft Matter Systems. arXiv: 2608.11060v1 [cond-mat.soft]. Aug 11, 2026.

https://arxiv.org/abs/2608.11060

Also: elastic, singularity, transition, collapse, in https://www.inkgmr.net/kwrds.html 

Keywords: gst, elasticity, singularity, transitions, collapse, soft matter