Dynamics of Out-of-Equilibrium Soft Materials

Over the past decade, there has been significant interest in how colloids self-assemble in a variety of non-equilibrium states and undergo slow evolution of the structure and rheological properties. With increased complexities of the colloidal dispersions such as anisotropy, charge distribution, nature of continuous media, etc., the state behavior becomes exceedingly rich. From a rheological point of view, the focus has been to correlate how a non-equilibrium state and corresponding microstructure affects the flow behavior, and in turn how the state itself gets altered by the flow field. The variety of topics under this umbrella include, but not limited to, are physical aging/rejuvenation, gelation, various facets of thixotropy, shear localization, shear banding, overaging, gel coarsening, delayed yielding, delayed solidification, multistep yielding, etc. The present special issue invites contributions from theorists, simulation groups and experimentalists that address contemporary issues in above mentioned and related topics in out of equilibrium soft materials.