Vitelli Group

James Franck Institute and Department of Physics, University of Chicago

The Vitelli group

Pattern formation by non-dissipative arrest of turbulent cascades

Spiking at the edge

Informational active matter

Non-reciprocal phase transitions

Data-driven biophysical modeling

Building mechanical metamaterials out of LEGO

Information-processing agents — including humans, bots, cells, and even individual molecules — all possess the capacity for adaptive, intelligent behavior. Our research centers on a fundamental question: what laws emerge when many such agents interact? To uncover the dynamics of these agentic many-body systems, we combine data-driven, interpretable machine learning with principled tools from theoretical physics, notably generalized symmetries and conservation laws. The robustness of our mathematical models is baked directly into their underlying geometric and topological architecture. We put these abstract frameworks to test through minimalist in-house experiments and active collaborations with laboratories worldwide.

Selected Recent Publications

Inertial Asynchronous Computation, Doruk Efe Gökmen, Michel Fruchart, Dmitrii Zendrikov, Giacomo Indiveri, Giulio Biroli, Vincenzo Vitelli, arXiv:2607.21965.
Discovering and decoding latent mean-field structure with variational autoencoders, Marco Biroli, Max Welling, Vincenzo Vitelli, arXiv:2606.08694.
Informational blueprints reveal condition-dependent gene regulatory architectures, Doruk Efe Gökmen, Rosalind Wenshan Pan, Tom Röschinger, Stephen Quake, Hernan Garcia, Rob Phillips, Vincenzo Vitelli, arXiv:2605.19071.
Natural Selection in the Wake of Catastrophe, Jesse Young Lin, Omer Granek, Joshua Sodicoff, Seppe Kuehn, David Pincus, Vincenzo Vitelli, arXiv:2606.09040.
Learning functional groups in complex microbiomes, Matthew S. Schmitt, Kiseok Lee, Freddy Bunbury, Joseph A. Landsittel, Vincenzo Vitelli, Seppe Kuehn, bioRxiv.
Learning noisy tissue dynamics across time scales, Ming Han, John Devany, Michel Fruchart, Margaret L. Gardel, Vincenzo Vitelli, arXiv:2510.19090.
Nonreciprocal many-body physics, Michel Fruchart, Vincenzo Vitelli, arXiv:2602.11111.
Odd wave turbulence, Xander M. de Wit, Léo Touzo, Sébastien Galtier, Michel Fruchart, Federico Toschi, Vincenzo Vitelli, arXiv:2504.15403.
Chirality across scales in tissue dynamics, Sihan Chen, Doruk Efe Gökmen, Michel Fruchart, Miriam Krumbein, Pascal Silberzan, Victor Yashunsky, Vincenzo Vitelli, arXiv:2506.12276.
Sociohydrodynamics: data-driven modelling of social behavior, Daniel S. Seara, Jonathan Colen, Michel Fruchart, Yael Avni, David Martin, Vincenzo Vitelli, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 122, (35) e2508692122 (2025), arXiv:2312.17627
Measurement-Induced Phase Transitions in Informational Active Matter, Bryan VanSaders, Michel Fruchart, Vincenzo Vitelli, PNAS Nexus, Volume 5, Issue 4 (2026), arXiv:2302.07402.
Adaptive locomotion of active solids, Jonas Veenstra, Colin Scheibner, Martin Brandenbourger, Jack Binysh, Anton Souslov, Vincenzo Vitelli, Corentin Coulais, Nature 639, 935–941 (2025).
When is nonreciprocity relevant?, Giulia Garcia Lorenzana, David Martin, Yael Avni, Daniel S. Seara, Michel Fruchart, Giulio Biroli, Vincenzo Vitelli, arXiv:2509.17972.
Learning dynamical behaviors in physical systems, Rituparno Mandal, Rosalind Huang, Michel Fruchart, Pepijn G. Moerman, Suriyanarayanan Vaikuntanathan, Arvind Murugan, Vincenzo Vitelli, arXiv:2406.07856.
Non-reciprocal spin-glass transition and aging, Giulia Garcia Lorenzana, Ada Altieri, Giulio Biroli, Michel Fruchart, Vincenzo Vitelli, Physical Review Letters 135, 187402 (2025). arXiv:2408.17360.
Odd viscosity suppresses intermittency in direct turbulent cascades, Sihan Chen, Xander M. de Wit, Michel Fruchart, Federico Toschi, Vincenzo Vitelli, Physical Review Letters 133, 144002 (2024), arXiv:2404.18894.
Interpreting neural operators: how nonlinear waves propagate in non-reciprocal solids, Jonathan Colen, Alexis Poncet, Denis Bartolo, Vincenzo Vitelli, Physical Review Letters 133, 107301 (2024), arXiv:2404.12918.
Learning a conserved mechanism for early neuroectoderm morphogenesis, Matthew F. Lefebvre, Jonathan Colen, Nikolas H. Claussen, Fridtjof Brauns, Marion K. Raich, Noah Mitchell, Michel Fruchart, Vincenzo Vitelli, Sebastian J. Streichan, bioRxiv.
Information theory for data-driven model reduction in physics and biology, Matthew S. Schmitt, Maciej Koch-Janusz, Michel Fruchart, Daniel S. Seara, Vincenzo Vitelli, arXiv:2312.06608.
Nonreciprocal Ising model, Yael Avni, Michel Fruchart, David Martin, Daniel Seara, Vincenzo Vitelli, Physical Review Letters 134, 117103 (2025), arXiv:2311.05471.
Pattern formation by turbulent cascades, Xander M. de Wit, Michel Fruchart, Tali Khain, Federico Toschi, Vincenzo Vitelli, Nature 627, 515-521 (2024) arXiv:2304.10444.
Spiking at the edge: Excitability at interfaces in reaction–diffusion systems, Colin Scheibner, Hillel Ori, Adam E. Cohen, Vincenzo Vitelli, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 121, e2307996120 (2024), arXiv:2304.06940.
Machine learning interpretable models of cell mechanics from protein images, Matthew S. Schmitt, Jonathan Colen, Stefano Sala, John Devany, Shailaja Seetharaman, Margaret L. Gardel, Patrick W. Oakes, Vincenzo Vitelli, Cell, 187(2), 481-494 (2024), arXiv:2303.00176.
Odd Viscosity and Odd Elasticity, Michel Fruchart, Colin Scheibner, Vincenzo Vitelli, Annual Review of Condensed Matter Physics 14, 471-510 (2023), arXiv:2207.00071.
Generalized exceptional points in nonlinear and stochastic dynamics, Cheyne Weis, Michel Fruchart, Ryo Hanai, Kyle Kawagoe, Peter B. Littlewood, Vincenzo Vitelli, Physical Review Research 7, 043157 (2025), arXiv:2207.11667.
The odd ideal gas: Hall viscosity and thermal conductivity from non-Hermitian kinetic theory, Michel Fruchart, Ming Han, Colin Scheibner, Vincenzo Vitelli, arXiv:2202.02037.
Stokes flows in three-dimensional fluids with odd and parity-violating viscosities, Tali Khain, Colin Scheibner, Michel Fruchart, Vincenzo Vitelli, Journal of Fluid Mechanics 934, (2022), arXiv:2011.07681.
Non-reciprocal phase transitions, Michel Fruchart, Ryo Hanai, Peter B. Littlewood, Vincenzo Vitelli, Nature 592, 363--369 (2021).
Machine learning active-nematic hydrodynamics, Jonathan Colen, Ming Han, Rui Zhang, Steven A. Redford, Linnea M. Lemma, Link Morgan, Paul V. Ruijgrok, Raymond Adkins, Zev Bryant, Zvonimir Dogic, Margaret L. Gardel, Juan J. de Pablo, Vincenzo Vitelli, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 118, e2016708118 (2021).
Symmetries and Dualities in the Theory of Elasticity, Michel Fruchart, Vincenzo Vitelli, Physical Review Letters 124, 248001 (2020).
Dualities and non-Abelian mechanics, Michel Fruchart, Yujie Zhou, Vincenzo Vitelli, Nature 577, 636--640 (2020).
Odd elasticity, Colin Scheibner, Anton Souslov, Debarghya Banerjee, Piotr Surówka, William T. M. Irvine, Vincenzo Vitelli, Nature Physics 16, 475--480 (2020).
Fluctuating hydrodynamics of chiral active fluids, Ming Han, Michel Fruchart, Colin Scheibner, Suriyanarayanan Vaikuntanathan, Juan J. de Pablo, Vincenzo Vitelli, Nature Physics 17, 1260–1269 (2021).
Topological Protection Can Arise from Thermal Fluctuations and Interactions, Ricardo Pablo Pedro, Jayson Paulose, Anton Souslov, Mildred Dresselhaus, Vincenzo Vitelli, Physical Review Letters 122, 118001 (2019).
Topological waves in fluids with odd viscosity, Anton Souslov, Kinjal Dasbiswas, Michel Fruchart, Suriyanarayanan Vaikuntanathan, Vincenzo Vitelli, Phys. Rev. Lett. 122, 128001 (2019).
Topological sound in active-liquid metamaterials, Anton Souslov, Benjamin C. van Zuiden, Denis Bartolo, Vincenzo Vitelli, Nature Physics 13, 1091--1094 (2017).
Odd viscosity in chiral active fluids, Debarghya Banerjee, Anton Souslov, Alexander G. Abanov, Vincenzo Vitelli, Nature Communications 8, (2017).
Spatiotemporal order and emergent edge currents in active spinner materials, Benjamin C. van Zuiden, Jayson Paulose, William T. M. Irvine, Denis Bartolo, Vincenzo Vitelli, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 113, 12919-12924 (2016).
Geared Topological Metamaterials with Tunable Mechanical Stability, Anne S. Meeussen, Jayson Paulose, Vincenzo Vitelli, Phys. Rev. X 6, 041029 (2016).
Selective buckling via states of self-stress in topological metamaterials, Jayson Paulose, Anne S. Meeussen, Vincenzo Vitelli, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 112, 7639-7644 (2015).
Topological modes bound to dislocations in mechanical metamaterials, Jayson Paulose, Bryan G. Chen, Vincenzo Vitelli, Nature Physics 11, 153--156 (2015).
Nonlinear conduction via solitons in a topological mechanical insulator, Bryan G. Chen, Nitin Upadhyaya, Vincenzo Vitelli, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 111, 13004-13009 (2014).