Active crystals and their stability

Obstacle-enhanced spontaneous oscillation of confined active granules

Spontaneous oscillation in particle numbers has been reported recently, in which two chambers connected by a narrow channel are alternately filled and emptied by self-propelled particles. The challenge in realizing the application of this oscillation lies in promotion of the oscillatory periodicity. By placing an asymmetric obstacle at an appropriate position near a channel opening, we can significantly improve the oscillation quality, which approaches the quality of an ideal oscillation. Additionally, we experimentally explore the relationship between the oscillation quality and various system parameters such as the obstacle position. Based on experimental observations, we incorporate a random noise into our previous model and properly reproduce the experimental results. The agreement between theory and experiment uncovers the mechanism of delicate competition between noise and unidirectional particle flow in influencing the oscillation quality. Our findings provide new insights for the optimization of the oscillation quality, expand the conventional rectification capability of the ratchet effect due to the obstacle, and make it possible for spontaneous oscillation to serve as a reliable source for rhythmic signals.

Active smectics on a sphere

The dynamics of active smectic liquid crystals confined on a spherical surface is explored through an active phase field crystal model. Starting from an initially randomly perturbed isotropic phase, several types of topological defects are spontaneously formed, and then annihilate during a coarsening process until a steady state is achieved. The coarsening process is highly complex involving several scaling laws of defect densities as a function of time where different dynamical exponents can be identified. In general the exponent for the final stage towards the steady state is significantly larger than that in the passive and in the planar case, i.e. the coarsening is getting accelerated both by activity and by the topological and geometrical properties of the sphere. A defect type characteristic for this active system is a rotating spiral of evolving smectic layering lines. On a sphere this defect type also determines the steady state. Our results can in principle be confirmed by dense systems of synthetic or biological active particles.

Motility and swimming: universal description and generic trajectories

Autonomous locomotion is a ubiquitous phenomenon in biology and in physics of active systems at microscopic scale. This includes prokaryotic, eukaryotic cells (crawling and swimming) and artificial swimmers. An outstanding feature is the ability of these entities to follow complex trajectories, ranging from straight, curved (circular, helical...), to random-like ones. The non-straight nature of these trajectories is often explained as a consequence of the asymmetry of the particle or the medium in which it moves, or due to the presence of bounding walls, etc... Here, we show that for a particle driven by a concentration field of an active species, straight, circular and helical trajectories emerge naturally in the absence of asymmetry of the particle or that of suspending medium. Our proof is based on general considerations, without referring to an explicit form of a model. We show that these three trajectories correspond to self-congruent solutions. Self-congruency means that the states of the system at different moments of time can be made identical by an appropriate combination of rotation and translation of the coordinate space. We show that these solutions are exhibited by spherically symmetric particles as a result of a series of pitchfork bifurcations, leading to spontaneous symmetry breaking in the concentration field driving the particle motility. Self-congruent dynamics in one and two dimensions are analyzed as well. Finally, we present a simple explicit nonlinear exactly solvable model of fully isotropic phoretic particle that shows the transitions from a non-motile state to straight motion to circular motion to helical motion as a series of spontaneous symmetry-breaking bifurcations. Whether a system exhibits or not a given trajectory only depends on the numerical values of parameters entering the model, while asymmetry of swimmer shape, or anisotropy of the suspending medium, or influence of bounding walls are not necessary.

Entropy production and collective excitations of crystals out of equilibrium: The concept of entropons

We study the collective vibrational excitations of crystals under out-of-equilibrium steady conditions that give rise to entropy production. Their excitation spectrum comprises equilibriumlike phonons of thermal origin and additional collective excitations called entropons because each of them represents a mode of spectral entropy production. Entropons coexist with phonons and dominate them when the system is far from equilibrium while they are negligible in near-equilibrium regimes. The concept of entropons has been recently introduced and verified in a special case of crystals formed by self-propelled particles. Here we show that entropons exist in a broader class of active crystals that are intrinsically out of equilibrium and characterized by the lack of detailed balance. After a general derivation, several explicit examples are discussed, including crystals consisting of particles with alignment interactions and frictional contact forces.

Stiffening and dynamics of a two-dimensional active elastic solid

This work deals with the mechanical properties and dynamics of an active elastic solid defined as a two-dimensional network of active stochastic particles interacting by nonlinear hard springs. By proposing a discrete model, it is numerically found that when activity in the system is turned on, the active solid stiffens as a function of propulsion forces, thus deviating from equilibrium mechanics. To understand this effect a minimal stochastic model is offered, and a physical explanation based on spatial symmetry-breaking is put forward. In addition, the dynamics of the active solid in the absence of an external stress is also studied. From this, three main features are observed to emerge, namely, a collective behavior within the active solid, a time-density fluctuation, and oscillating dynamics of the internal stresses towards a steady state.

Extreme Spontaneous Deformations of Active Crystals

We demonstrate that two-dimensional crystals made of active particles can experience extremely large spontaneous deformations without melting. Using particles mostly interacting via pairwise repulsive forces, we show that such active crystals maintain long-range bond order and algebraically decaying positional order, but with an exponent η not limited by the 1/3 bound given by the (equilibrium) KTHNY theory. We rationalize our findings using linear elastic theory and show the existence of two well-defined effective temperatures quantifying respectively large-scale deformations and bond-order fluctuations. The root of these phenomena lies in the sole time-persistence of the intrinsic axes of particles, and they should thus be observed in many different situations.

Stationary broken parity states in active matter models

We demonstrate that several nonvariational continuum models commonly used to describe active matter as well as other active systems exhibit nongeneric behavior: each model supports asymmetric but stationary localized states even in the absence of pinning at heterogeneities. Moreover, such states only begin to drift following a drift-transcritical bifurcation as the activity increases. Asymmetric stationary states should only exist in variational systems, i.e., in models with gradient structure. In other words, such states are expected in passive systems, but not in active systems where the gradient structure of the model is broken by activity. We identify a "spurious" gradient dynamics structure of these models that is responsible for this nongeneric behavior, and determine the types of additional terms that render the models generic, i.e., with asymmetric states that appear via drift-pitchfork bifurcations and are generically moving. We provide detailed illustrations of our results using numerical continuation of resting and steadily drifting states in both generic and nongeneric cases.

From a microscopic inertial active matter model to the Schrödinger equation

Active field theories, such as the paradigmatic model known as 'active model B+', are simple yet very powerful tools for describing phenomena such as motility-induced phase separation. No comparable theory has been derived yet for the underdamped case. In this work, we introduce active model I+, an extension of active model B+ to particles with inertia. The governing equations of active model I+ are systematically derived from the microscopic Langevin equations. We show that, for underdamped active particles, thermodynamic and mechanical definitions of the velocity field no longer coincide and that the density-dependent swimming speed plays the role of an effective viscosity. Moreover, active model I+ contains an analog of the Schrödinger equation in Madelung form as a limiting case, allowing one to find analoga of the quantum-mechanical tunnel effect and of fuzzy dark matter in active fluids. We investigate the active tunnel effect analytically and via numerical continuation.

Perspective: New directions in dynamical density functional theory

Classical dynamical density functional theory (DDFT) has become one of the central modeling approaches in nonequilibrium soft matter physics. Recent years have seen the emergence of novel and interesting fields of application for DDFT. In particular, there has been a remarkable growth in the amount of work related to chemistry. Moreover, DDFT has stimulated research on other theories such as phase field crystal models and power functional theory. In this perspective, we summarize the latest developments in the field of DDFT and discuss a variety of possible directions for future research.

Emergence and melting of active vortex crystals

Melting of two-dimensional (2D) equilibrium crystals is a complex phenomenon characterized by the sequential loss of positional and orientational order. In contrast to passive systems, active crystals can self-assemble and melt into an active fluid by virtue of their intrinsic motility and inherent non-equilibrium stresses. Currently, the non-equilibrium physics of active crystallization and melting processes is not well understood. Here, we establish the emergence and investigate the melting of self-organized vortex crystals in 2D active fluids using a generalized Toner-Tu theory. Performing extensive hydrodynamic simulations, we find rich transition scenarios. On small domains, we identify a hysteretic transition as well as a transition featuring temporal coexistence of active vortex lattices and active turbulence, both of which can be controlled by self-propulsion and active stresses. On large domains, an active vortex crystal with solid order forms within the parameter range corresponding to active vortex lattices. The melting of this crystal proceeds through an intermediate hexatic phase. Generally, these results highlight the differences and similarities between crystalline phases in active fluids and their equilibrium counterparts.

Spatial velocity correlations in inertial systems of active Brownian particles

Recently, it has been discovered that systems of active Brownian particles (APB) at high density organise their velocities into coherent domains showing large spatial structures in the velocity field. This collective behavior occurs spontaneously, i.e. is not caused by any specific interparticle force favoring the alignment of the velocities. This phenomenon was investigated in the absence of thermal noise and in the overdamped regime where inertial forces could be neglected. In this work, we demonstrate through numerical simulations and theoretical analysis that velocity alignment is a robust property of ABP and persists even in the presence of inertial forces and thermal fluctuations. We also show that a single dimensionless parameter, such as the Péclet number customarily employed in the description of self-propelled particles, is not sufficient to fully characterize this phenomenon either in the regimes of large viscosity or small mass. Indeed, the size of the velocity domains, measured through the correlation length of the spatial velocity correlation, remains constant when the swim velocity increases and decreases as the rotational diffusion becomes larger. We find that, contrary to the common belief, the spatial velocity correlation not only depends on inertia but is also non-symmetrically affected by mass and inverse viscosity variations. We conclude that in self-propelled systems, at variance with passive systems, variations in the inertial time (mass over solvent viscosity) and mass act as independent control parameters. Finally, we highlight the non-thermal nature of the spatial velocity correlations that are fairly insensitive both to solvent and active temperatures.

Two-dimensional localized states in an active phase-field-crystal model

The active phase-field-crystal (active PFC) model provides a simple microscopic mean field description of crystallization in active systems. It combines the PFC model (or conserved Swift-Hohenberg equation) of colloidal crystallization and aspects of the Toner-Tu theory for self-propelled particles. We employ the active PFC model to study the occurrence of localized and periodic active crystals in two spatial dimensions. Due to the activity, crystalline states can undergo a drift instability and start to travel while keeping their spatial structure. Based on linear stability analyses, time simulations, and numerical continuation of the fully nonlinear states, we present a detailed analysis of the bifurcation structure of resting and traveling states. We explore, for instance, how the slanted homoclinic snaking of steady localized states found for the passive PFC model is modified by activity. Morphological phase diagrams showing the regions of existence of various solution types are presented merging the results from all the analysis tools employed. We also study how activity influences the crystal structure with transitions from hexagons to rhombic and stripe patterns. This in-depth analysis of a simple PFC model for active crystals and swarm formation provides a clear general understanding of the observed multistability and associated hysteresis effects, and identifies thresholds for qualitative changes in behavior.

Field-theoretic model for chemotaxis in run and tumble particles

In this paper, we develop a field-theoretic description for run and tumble chemotaxis, based on a density-functional description of crystalline materials modified to capture orientational ordering. We show that this framework, with its in-built multiparticle interactions, soft-core repulsion, and elasticity, is ideal for describing continuum collective phases with particle resolution, but on diffusive timescales. We show that our model exhibits particle aggregation in an externally imposed constant attractant field, as is observed for phototactic or thermotactic agents. We also show that this model captures particle aggregation through self-chemotaxis, an important mechanism that aids quorum-dependent cellular interactions.

Chiral Active Hexatics: Giant Number Fluctuations, Waves, and Destruction of Order

Active materials, composed of internally driven particles, have properties that are qualitatively distinct from matter at thermal equilibrium. However, the most spectacular departures from equilibrium phase behavior are thought to be confined to systems with polar or nematic asymmetry. In this Letter, we show that such departures are also displayed by more symmetric phases such as hexatics if, in addition, the constituent particles have chiral asymmetry. We show that chiral active hexatics whose rotation rate does not depend on density have giant number fluctuations. If the rotation rate depends on density, the giant number fluctuations are suppressed due to a novel orientation-density sound mode with a linear dispersion which propagates even in the overdamped limit. However, we demonstrate that beyond a finite but large length scale, a chirality and activity-induced relevant nonlinearity invalidates the predictions of the linear theory and destroys the hexatic order. In addition, we show that activity modifies the interactions between defects in the active chiral hexatic phase, making them nonmutual. Finally, to demonstrate the generality of a chiral active hexatic phase we show that it results from the melting of chiral active crystals in finite systems.

Phase-field-crystal description of active crystallites: Elastic and inelastic collisions

The active Phase-Field-Crystal (aPFC) model combines elements of the Toner-Tu theory for self-propelled particles and the classical Phase-Field-Crystal (PFC) model that describes the transition between liquid and crystalline phases. In the liquid-crystal coexistence region of the PFC model, crystalline clusters exist in the form of localized states that coexist with a homogeneous background. At sufficiently strong activity (related to self-propulsion strength), they start to travel. We employ numerical path continuation and direct time simulations to first investigate the existence regions of different types of localized states in one spatial dimension. The results are summarized in morphological phase diagrams in the parameter plane spanned by activity and mean density. Then we focus on the interaction of traveling localized states, studying their collision behavior. As a result, we distinguish "elastic" and "inelastic" collisions. In the former, localized states recover their properties after a collision, while in the latter, they may completely or partially annihilate, forming resting bound states or various traveling states.

Dynamical Crystallites of Active Chiral Particles

One of the intrinsic characteristics of far-from-equilibrium systems is the nonrelaxational nature of the system dynamics, which leads to novel properties that cannot be understood and described by conventional pathways based on thermodynamic potentials. Of particular interest are the formation and evolution of ordered patterns composed of active particles that exhibit collective behavior. Here we examine such a type of nonpotential active system, focusing on effects of coupling and competition between chiral particle self-propulsion and self-spinning. It leads to the transition between three bulk dynamical regimes dominated by collective translative motion, spinning-induced structural arrest, and dynamical frustration. In addition, a persistently dynamical state of self-rotating crystallites is identified as a result of a localized-delocalized transition induced by the crystal-melt interface. The mechanism for the breaking of localized bulk states can also be utilized to achieve self-shearing or self-flow of active crystalline layers.

Active phase field crystal systems with inertial delay and underdamped dynamics

Active matter systems often are well approximated as overdamped, meaning that any inertial momentum is immediately dissipated by the environment. On the other hand, especially for macroscopic systems but also for many mesoscopic ones particle mass can become relevant for the dynamics. For such systems we recently proposed an underdamped continuum model which captures translationally inertial dynamics via two contributions. First, convection and second a damping time scale of inertial motion. In this paper, we ask how both of these features influence the collective behavior compared to overdamped dynamics by studying the example of the active phase field crystal model. We first focus on the case of suppressed convection to study the role of the damping time. We quantify that the relaxation process to the steady collective motion state is considerably prolonged with damping time due to the increasing occurrence of transient groups of circularly moving density peaks. Finally, we illustrate the fully underdamped case with convection. Instead of collective motion of density peaks we then find a coexistence of constant high and low density phases reminiscent of motility-induced phase separation.

Predictive local field theory for interacting active Brownian spheres in two spatial dimensions

We present a predictive local field theory for the nonequilibrium dynamics of interacting active Brownian particles with a spherical shape in two spatial dimensions. The theory is derived by a rigorous coarse-graining starting from the Langevin equations that describe the trajectories of the individual particles. For high accuracy and generality of the theory, it includes configurational order parameters and derivatives up to infinite order. In addition, we discuss possible approximations of the theory and present reduced models that are easier to apply. We show that our theory contains popular models such as Active Model B+  as special cases and that it provides explicit expressions for the coefficients occurring in these and other, often phenomenological, models. As a further outcome, the theory yields an analytical expression for the density-dependent mean swimming speed of the particles. To demonstrate an application of the new theory, we analyze a simple reduced model of the lowest nontrivial order in derivatives, which is able to predict the onset of motility-induced phase separation of the particles. By a linear stability analysis, an analytical expression for the spinodal corresponding to motility-induced phase separation is obtained. This expression is evaluated for the case of particles interacting repulsively by a Weeks-Chandler-Andersen potential. The analytical predictions for the spinodal associated with these particles are found to be in very good agreement with the results of Brownian dynamics simulations that are based on the same Langevin equations as our theory. Furthermore, the critical point predicted by our analytical results agrees excellently with recent computational results from the literature.

Bifurcations of front motion in passive and active Allen-Cahn-type equations

The well-known cubic Allen-Cahn (AC) equation is a simple gradient dynamics (or variational) model for a nonconserved order parameter field. After revising main literature results for the occurrence of different types of moving fronts, we employ path continuation to determine their bifurcation diagram in dependence of the external field strength or chemical potential. We then employ the same methodology to systematically analyze fronts for more involved AC-type models. In particular, we consider a cubic-quintic variational AC model and two different nonvariational generalizations. We determine and compare the bifurcation diagrams of front solutions in the four considered models.

Oriented Active Solids

We present a complete analysis of the linearized dynamics of active solids with uniaxial orientational order, taking into account a hitherto overlooked consequence of rotation invariance. Our predictions include a purely active response of two-dimensional orientationally ordered solids to shear, the possibility of stable active solids with quasi-long-range order in two dimensions and long-range order in three dimensions, generic instability of the solid for one sign of active forcing, and the instability of the uniaxially ordered phase in momentum-conserved systems for large active forcing irrespective of its sign.

A comparative study between two models of active cluster crystals

We study a system of active particles with soft repulsive interactions that lead to an active cluster-crystal phase in two dimensions. We use two different modelizations of the active force - Active Brownian particles (ABP) and Ornstein-Uhlenbeck particles (AOUP) - and focus on analogies and differences between them. We study the different phases appearing in the system, in particular, the formation of ordered patterns drifting in space without being altered. We develop an effective description which captures some properties of the stable clusters for both ABP and AOUP. As an additional point, we confine such a system in a large channel, in order to study the interplay between the cluster crystal phase and the well-known accumulation near the walls, a phenomenology typical of active particles. For small activities, we find clusters attached to the walls and deformed, while for large values of the active force they collapse in stripes parallel to the walls.

Tunable self-healing of magnetically propelling colloidal carpets

The process of crystallization is difficult to observe for transported, out-of-equilibrium systems, as the continuous energy injection increases activity and competes with ordering. In emerging fields such as microfluidics and active matter, the formation of long-range order is often frustrated by the presence of hydrodynamics. Here we show that a population of colloidal rollers assembled by magnetic fields into large-scale propelling carpets can form perfect crystalline materials upon suitable balance between magnetism and hydrodynamics. We demonstrate a field-tunable annealing protocol based on a controlled colloidal flow above the carpet that enables complete crystallization after a few seconds of propulsion. The structural transition from a disordered to a crystalline carpet phase is captured via spatial and temporal correlation functions. Our findings unveil a novel pathway to magnetically anneal clusters of propelling particles, bridging driven systems with crystallization and freezing in material science.

Activity often suppresses equilibrium ordering and crystallization in a group of driven or self-propelling colloids. Massana-Cid et al. show tunable self-healing process, where magnetic colloidal rollers are assembled to crystalline carpets upon a balance between magnetism and hydrodynamic interactions.

Two types of exclusion interactions for self-propelled objects and collective motion induced by their combination

Exclusive interactions between self-driven objects may play crucial roles in their collective behavior, e.g., in collective migration of living cells. Here, such collective behavior is studied based on a simple but sufficient model taking account the exclusion effects, which incorporate the following two distinct kinds of exclusion interactions in two dimensions: The first is the mechanical exclusion wherein two objects mechanically repel each other when they overlap. The second is the scattering exclusion, wherein the directions along which each object tries to move are modulated to avoid overlapping. We propose a theoretical model based on two principles: (1) Each object maintains its own polarity with a fixed strength and attempts to move into the polarity direction and (2) objects interact with each other through the abovementioned exclusions. Based on this model, we look at the difference of consequences and combinatory effects of these two kinds of exclusions. Furthermore, we calculate the polar order of polarity directions without an external directional bias. Our results suggest that the combination of these two kinds of exclusions leads to effectively inelastic scattering of two objects, which eventually gives rise to global polar ordering. We also find that the traveling band can arise by this mechanism of alignment at the intermediate density, as generally seen in collective motion with polar alignment and investigated in various earlier works. Characteristics of transitions among disordered, traveling band, and homogeneously ordered states of the presented model are investigated, and their similarities and differences with those given by the explicit alignment interaction are discussed.

Resting and traveling localized states in an active phase-field-crystal model

The conserved Swift-Hohenberg equation (or phase-field-crystal [PFC] model) provides a simple microscopic description of the thermodynamic transition between fluid and crystalline states. Combining it with elements of the Toner-Tu theory for self-propelled particles, Menzel and Löwen [Phys. Rev. Lett. 110, 055702 (2013)PRLTAO0031-900710.1103/PhysRevLett.110.055702] obtained a model for crystallization (swarm formation) in active systems. Here, we study the occurrence of resting and traveling localized states, i.e., crystalline clusters, within the resulting active PFC model. Based on linear stability analyses and numerical continuation of the fully nonlinear states, we present a detailed analysis of the bifurcation structure of periodic and localized, resting and traveling states in a one-dimensional active PFC model. This allows us, for instance, to explore how the slanted homoclinic snaking of steady localized states found for the passive PFC model is amended by activity. A particular focus lies on the onset of motion, where we show that it occurs either through a drift-pitchfork or a drift-transcritical bifurcation. A corresponding general analytical criterion is derived.

Dynamical density functional theory with hydrodynamic interactions in confined geometries

We study the dynamics of colloidal fluids in both unconfined geometries and when confined by a hard wall. Under minimal assumptions, we derive a dynamical density functional theory (DDFT) which includes hydrodynamic interactions (HI; bath-mediated forces). By using an efficient numerical scheme based on pseudospectral methods for integro-differential equations, we demonstrate its excellent agreement with the full underlying Langevin equations for systems of hard disks in partial confinement. We further use the derived DDFT formalism to elucidate the crucial effects of HI in confined systems.

Active crystals on a sphere

Two-dimensional crystals on curved manifolds exhibit nontrivial defect structures. Here we consider "active crystals" on a sphere, which are composed of self-propelled colloidal particles. Our work is based on a phase-field-crystal-type model that involves a density and a polarization field on the sphere. Depending on the strength of the self-propulsion, three different types of crystals are found: a static crystal, a self-spinning "vortex-vortex" crystal containing two vortical poles of the local velocity, and a self-translating "source-sink" crystal with a source pole where crystallization occurs and a sink pole where the active crystal melts. These different crystalline states as well as their defects are studied theoretically here and can in principle be confirmed in experiments.

Emergent Structures in an Active Polar Fluid: Dynamics of Shape, Scattering, and Merger

Spatially localized defect structures emerge spontaneously in a hydrodynamic description of an active polar fluid comprising polar "actin" filaments and "myosin" motor proteins that (un)bind to filaments and exert active contractile stresses. These emergent defect structures are characterized by distinct textures and can be either static or mobile-we derive effective equations of motion for these "extended particles" and analyze their shape, kinetics, interactions, and scattering. Depending on the impact parameter and propulsion speed, these active defects undergo elastic scattering or merger. Our results are relevant for the dynamics of actomyosin-dense structures at the cell cortex, reconstituted actomyosin complexes, and 2D active colloidal gels.

Dimensionality matters in the collective behaviour of active emulsions

The behaviour of artificial microswimmers consisting of droplets of a mesogenic oil immersed in an aqueous surfactant solution depends qualitatively on the conditions of dimensional confinement; ranging from only transient aggregates in Hele-Shaw geometries to hexagonally packed, convection-driven clusters when sedimenting in an unconfined reservoir. We study the effects of varying the swimmer velocity, the height of the reservoir, and the buoyancy of the droplet swimmers. Two simple adjustments of the experimental setting lead to a suppression of clustering: either a decrease of the reservoir height below a certain value, or a match of the densities of droplets and surrounding phase, showing that the convection is the key mechanism for the clustering behaviour.

Emergence of Chirality from Isotropic Interactions of Three Length Scales

Chirality is known to play a pivotal role in determining material properties and functionalities. However, it remains a great challenge to understand and control the emergence of chirality and the related enantioselective process particularly when the building components of the system are achiral. Here we explore the generic mechanisms driving the formation of two-dimensional chiral structures in systems characterized by isotropic interactions and three competing length scales. We demonstrate that starting from isotropic and rotationally invariant interactions, a variety of chiral ordered patterns and superlattices with anisotropic but achiral units can self-assemble. The mechanisms for selecting specific states are related to the length-scale coupling and the selection of resonant density wave vectors. Sample phase diagrams and chiral elastic properties are identified. These findings provide a viable route for predicting chiral phases and selecting the desired handedness.

Collective dynamics of active filament complexes

Networks of biofilaments are essential for the formation of cellular structures that support various biological functions. For the most part, previous studies have investigated the collective dynamics of rodlike biofilaments; however, the shapes of the actual subcellular components are often more elaborate. In this study, we considered an active object composed of two active filaments, which represents the progression from rodlike biofilaments to complex-shaped biofilaments. Specifically, we numerically assessed the collective behaviors of these active objects in two dimensions and observed several types of dynamics, depending on the density and the angle of the two filaments as shape parameters of the object. Among the observed collective dynamics, a moving density band that we named a "moving smectic" is introduced here for the first time. By analyzing the trajectories of individual objects and the interactions among them, this study demonstrated how interactions among active biofilaments with complex shapes could produce collective dynamics in a nontrivial manner.

Getting drowned in a swirl: Deformable bead-spring model microswimmers in external flow fields

Deformability is a central feature of many types of microswimmers, e.g., for artificially generated self-propelled droplets. Here, we analyze deformable bead-spring microswimmers in an externally imposed solvent flow field as simple theoretical model systems. We focus on their behavior in a circular swirl flow in two spatial dimensions. Linear (straight) two-bead swimmers are found to circle around the swirl with a slight drift to the outside with increasing activity. In contrast to that, we observe for triangular three-bead or squarelike four-bead swimmers a tendency of being drawn into the swirl and finally getting drowned, although a radial inward component is absent in the flow field. During one cycle around the swirl, the self-propulsion direction of an active triangular or squarelike swimmer remains almost constant, while their orbits become deformed exhibiting an "egglike" shape. Over time, the swirl flow induces slight net rotations of these swimmer types, which leads to net rotations of the egg-shaped orbits. Interestingly, in certain cases, the orbital rotation changes sense when the swimmer approaches the flow singularity. Our predictions can be verified in real-space experiments on artificial microswimmers.

Active matter beyond mean-field: ring-kinetic theory for self-propelled particles

Recently, Hanke et al. [Phys. Rev. E 88, 052309 (2013)] showed that mean-field kinetic theory fails to describe collective motion in soft active colloids and that correlations must not be neglected. Correlation effects are also expected to be essential in systems of biofilaments driven by molecular motors and in swarms of midges. To obtain correlations in an active matter system from first principles, we derive a ring-kinetic theory for Vicsek-style models of self-propelled agents from the exact N-particle evolution equation in phase space. The theory goes beyond mean-field and does not rely on Boltzmann's approximation of molecular chaos. It can handle precollisional correlations and cluster formation, which are both important to understand the phase transition to collective motion. We propose a diagrammatic technique to perform a small-density expansion of the collision operator and derive the first two equations of the Bogoliubov-Born-Green-Kirkwood-Yvon (BBGKY) hierarchy. An algorithm is presented that numerically solves the evolution equation for the two-particle correlations on a lattice. Agent-based simulations are performed and informative quantities such as orientational and density correlation functions are compared with those obtained by ring-kinetic theory. Excellent quantitative agreement between simulations and theory is found at not-too-small noises and mean free paths. This shows that there are parameter ranges in Vicsek-like models where the correlated closure of the BBGKY hierarchy gives correct and nontrivial results. We calculate the dependence of the orientational correlations on distance in the disordered phase and find that it seems to be consistent with a power law with an exponent around -1.8, followed by an exponential decay. General limitations of the kinetic theory and its numerical solution are discussed.

Interfacial mechanisms in active emulsions

Active emulsions, i.e., emulsions whose droplets perform self-propelled motion, are of tremendous interest for mimicking collective phenomena in biological populations such as phytoplankton and bacterial colonies, but also for experimentally studying rheology, pattern formation, and phase transitions in systems far from thermal equilibrium. For fuelling such systems, molecular processes involving the surfactants which stabilize the emulsions are a straightforward concept. We outline and compare two different types of reactions, one which chemically modifies the surfactant molecules, the other which transfers them into a different colloidal state. While in the first case symmetry breaking follows a standard linear instability, the second case turns out to be more complex. Depending on the dissolution pathway, there is either an intrinsically nonlinear instability, or no symmetry breaking at all (and hence no locomotion).