Self-induced polar order of active Brownian particles in a harmonic trap

Abstract

Hydrodynamically interacting active particles in an external harmonic potential form a self-assembled fluid pump at large enough Péclet numbers. Here, we give a quantitative criterion for the formation of the pump and show that particle orientations align in the self-induced flow field in surprising analogy to ferromagnetic order where the active Péclet number plays the role of inverse temperature. The particle orientations follow a Boltzmann distribution $\Phi (\mathbf{p})\sim \exp (A{p}_z)$ where the ordering mean field $A$ scales with active Péclet number and polar order parameter. The mean flow field in which the particles' swimming directions align corresponds to a regularized stokeslet with strength proportional to swimming speed. Analytic mean-field results are compared with results from Brownian dynamics simulations with hydrodynamic interactions included and are found to capture the self-induced alignment very well.

5 pages, 4 figures, supplemental material and 2 videos

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