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Nonlinear and Soft Matter Physics Lab
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The lab uses experiments to uncover how rhythms and patterns arise on their own.
AboutAbout the lab
Toward how order emerges by itself.
The Nonlinear and Soft Matter Physics Lab studies nonlinear systems that show a wide variety of motions and patterns.
The mechanisms behind many dynamic phenomena, including those of living systems, are still not understood.
The difficulty lies in nonlinearity, where the whole cannot be expressed as the sum of its individual elements, and in nonequilibrium, where matter and energy flow in and out.
Centered on experiments at scales from micrometers to millimeters, the lab combines them with theoretical analysis and numerical computation.
Key terms
- Nonlinearity
- A property by which the behavior of the whole cannot be expressed simply by adding up its individual elements
- Soft matter
- Soft materials such as surfactants, liquid crystals, polymers, and rubber that take a long time to return to equilibrium
- Reaction-diffusion system
- A framework that describes how patterns form through the combination of local change and effects that spread to the surroundings
ResearchResearch themes
Phenomena governed by nonlinearity and nonequilibrium are common in soft matter, fluid, chemical reaction, and biological systems. The lab aims to understand the dynamic ordered structures of such phenomena and to obtain universal insights into nonlinear and nonequilibrium physics.
*Illustrative imageNonlinear Oscillators and Entrainment
The lab deals with stable rhythms such as the heartbeat, breathing, and the flashing of fireflies. Using the Belousov-Zhabotinsky (BZ) reaction, salt-water oscillators, candle oscillators, and metronomes, it analyzes limit-cycle oscillations and entrainment, the phenomenon in which oscillators synchronize with one another.
*Illustrative imageAutonomous Pattern Formation
The lab deals with phenomena in which spatial order arises on its own, such as wind ripples on sand dunes and patterns on animal skin. Using the BZ reaction and E. coli colony formation as experimental systems, it explores how order forms within the framework of reaction-diffusion systems.
*Illustrative imagePattern Formation with Flow
In real systems, the medium itself moves, as in solution convection and E. coli chemotaxis. The lab investigates phenomena such as convection induced in the BZ reaction by changes in surface tension, and explores how to describe systems that include advection, as well as their universal features.
*Illustrative imageSoft Matter Physics
The lab deals with soft materials such as surfactants, liquid crystals, polymers, and rubber, which take a long time to return to equilibrium. It investigates the curious phenomena that occur under nonequilibrium conditions by combining theoretical considerations with carefully designed experiments.
MembersFaculty
The members of the Nonlinear and Soft Matter Physics Lab are faculty members, project researchers, doctoral and master's students, and undergraduates doing their graduation research.As of 2026
- ProfessorHiroyuki Kitahata
- Assistant ProfessorHiroaki Ito
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Report an errorAbout the images
The top and research theme images are illustrative and were not taken at the lab. They are cropped from Wikimedia Commons images. Cropped CC BY-SA images are provided under the same CC BY-SA license as the original (version shown on each line).
- Top image: “Ripples on Mesquite Flat Sand Dunes” National Park Service / Public domain (cropped)
- Nonlinear Oscillators and Entrainment: “Cycle synchronization time 0” RichiRan / CC BY-SA 3.0 (cropped)
- Autonomous Pattern Formation: “Giant Pufferfish skin pattern detail” Chiswick Chap / CC BY-SA 3.0 (cropped)
- Pattern Formation with Flow: “ConvectionHorizantalPlate-2” Harke / Public domain (cropped)
- Soft Matter Physics: “Liquid crystal fingerprint texture 2” Alexprague / CC BY-SA 4.0 (cropped)
- Related lab (物性理論
（佐藤研究室） ): “HELEN target area” Colin N. Danson et al. / CC BY 4.0 (cropped) - Related lab (素粒子論研究室): “3D view of an event recorded with the CMS detector in 2012 at a proton-proton centre of mass energy of 8 TeV” McCauley, Thomas; Taylor, Lucas; for the CMS Collaboration / CC BY-SA 3.0 (cropped)
- Related lab (原子核物理学): “Vela Supernova Remnant by Harel Boren ( )” Harel Boren / CC BY-SA 4.0 (cropped)
- Related lab (宇宙物理学): “Artist’s impression of merging neutron stars (ann17040a)” ESO/L. Calçada/M. Kornmesser / CC BY 4.0 (cropped)
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