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Mechanical pairing and self-assembled chains of nonconvex granular rotors
Phys. Rev. E 114, 055409 – Published 10 November, 2026
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/vdml-skqc
Abstract
We experimentally and numerically demonstrate the self-assembly of granular rotors into chain-like structures. The rotors are nonconvex rigid bodies with rotational activity. We first investigate the interaction between two rotors and establish an attractive interaction controlled by the ratio of the rotational activity to the noise and also dependent on the rotors’ geometry. We then show that the cohesive state between spinner pairs leads to robust chains that can be either initially set or spontaneously self-assembled.
