Tuning nonlinear waves in nonreciprocal active filaments

Abstract

The instabilities of slender structures power biological locomotion across scales, and offer a compelling method to actuate soft robots. Nonreciprocal elastic solids have been found to amplify flexural waves in one direction only, but design principles to tune and stabilize these waves are missing. Here we develop a geometrically exact theory of nonreciprocal filaments and provide simulations that capture their post-instability nonlinear dynamics. We find that nonreciprocity, when coupled to inertia or pre-stress, amplifies and advects curvature variations. The resulting one-way patterns of shape morphing can then be selected via dissipative interactions with the environment. Our work offers a continuum-based strategy for how internal stresses can drive active unidirectional waves without need for additional degrees of freedom.