Current reversal in polar flock at order-disorder interface

We studied a system of polar self-propelled particles (SPPs) on a thin rectangular channel designed into three regions of order-disorder-order. The division of the three regions is made on the basis of the noise SPPs experience in the respective regions. The noise in the two wide regions is chosen lower than the critical noise of order-disorder transition and noise in the middle region or interface is higher than the critical noise. This makes the geometry of the system analogous to the Josephson junction (JJ) in solid-state physics. Keeping all other parameters fixed, we study the properties of the moving SPPs in the bulk as well as along the interface for different widths of the junction. On increasing interface width, the system shows an order-to-disorder transition from coherent moving SPPs in the whole system to the interrupted current for large interface width. Surprisingly, inside the interface, we observed the current reversal for intermediate widths of the interface. Such current reversal is due to the strong randomness present inside the interface, which makes the wall of the interface reflecting. Hence, our study gives new interesting collective properties of SPPs at the interface which can be useful to design switching devices using active agents.

Activity-induced instabilities of brain organoids

We present an analytical and numerical investigation of the activity-induced hydrodynamic instabilities in model brain organoids. While several mechanisms have been introduced to explain the experimental observation of surface instabilities in brain organoids, the role of activity has been largely overlooked. Our results show that the active stress generated by the cells can be a, previously overlooked, contributor to the emergence of surface deformations in brain organoids.

Generation of stationary and moving vortices in active polar fluids in the planar Taylor-Couette geometry

We study the dynamics of an active polar fluid in the interstitial space between two fixed coaxial cylinders. For sufficiently large expansive or contractive active stresses, the fluid presents roll instabilities of axially symmetric states leading to the spontaneous formation of vortices in the flow field. These vortices are either stationary or travel around the inner cylinder. Increasing the activity further, our numerical solutions indicate the existence of active turbulence that coexists with regular vortex solutions.

Capillary instability of axisymmetric, active liquid crystal jets

We study linear stability of an infinitely long, axisymmetric, cylindrical active liquid crystal (ALC) jet in a passive isotropic fluid matrix using a polar active liquid crystal (ALC) model. We identify three possible unstable modes (or mechanisms) as the result of the interaction between the flow and the active (or self-propelled) molecular motion. The first unstable mode is related to the polarity vector instability when coupled to the flow field in the presence of the molecular activity. It can be traced back to the inherent polarity vector instability in a bulk active liquid crystal flow. However, it can be grossly amplified in the ALC jet to encompass up to infinitely many unstable growth rates when the long range distortional elastic interaction is weak in certain parameter regimes; it can also be suppressed in other parameter regimes completely. The second unstable mode is related to the classical capillary or Rayleigh instability, which exists in a finite wave interval [0, k(cutoff)]. The new feature for this instability lies in the dependence of the cutoff wave number (k(cutoff)) on the activity of the active matter system. For ALC jets with sufficiently strong contractile activity, the instability can be completely suppressed though. The third unstable mode is due to the active viscous stress. This unstable mode can emerge in the intermediate wave number regime at a sufficiently strong active viscosity and even expand all the way to the zero wave number limit when the Rayleigh unstable mode is absent. It can also be suppressed in the regime of weak active viscous stress. At any given values of the model parameters, the three types of instabilities can show up either individually or in a certain combination, or be completely suppressed altogether. In this paper, we discuss the positive growth rates associated with the instabilities, windows of instability and their dependence on model parameters through extensive numerical computations aided by asymptotic analyses.

Pushing off the walls: a mechanism of cell motility in confinement

We propose a novel mechanism of cell motility, which relies on the coupling of actin polymerization at the cell membrane to geometric confinement. We consider a polymerizing viscoelastic cytoskeletal gel confined in a narrow channel, and show analytically that spontaneous motion occurs. Interestingly, this does not require specific adhesion with the channel walls, and yields velocities potentially larger than the polymerization velocity. The contractile activity of myosin motors is not necessary to trigger motility in this mechanism, but is shown quantitatively to increase the velocity. Our model qualitatively accounts for recent experiments which show that cells without specific adhesion proteins are motile only in confined environments while they are unable to move on a flat surface, and could help in understanding the mechanisms of cell migration in more complex confined geometries such as living tissues.

Optimizing intermittent reaction paths

Various examples of biochemical reactions in cells, such as DNA/protein interactions, reveal that in extremely diluted regimes reaction paths are not always simple brownian trajectories. They can rather be qualified as intermittent, since they combine slow diffusion phases on one hand and a second mode of faster transport on the other hand, which can be either a faster diffusion mode, as in the case of DNA-binding proteins, or a ballistic mode powered by molecular motors in the case of intracellular transport. In this article, we introduce simple theoretical models which permit to calculate explicitly the reaction rates for reactions limited by intermittent transport. This approach shows quantitatively that intermittent reaction pathways are actually very efficient, since they permit to significantly increase the reaction rates, which could explain why they are observed so often. Moreover, we give theoretical arguments which suggest that intermittent transport could also be useful for in vitro chemistry. Indeed, we show that intermittent transport naturally pops up in the context of reaction at interfaces, where reactants combine surface diffusion phases and bulk excursions, and could permit to enhance reactivity. In this case, adjusting chemically the affinity of reactants with the interface makes possible to optimize the reaction rate.