Aspects of the density field in an active nematic

Abstract

Active nematics are conceptually the simplest orientationally ordered phase of self-driven particles, but have proved to be a perennial source of surprises. We show here through numerical solution of coarse-grained equations for order parameter and density that the growth of the active nematic phase from the isotropic phase is necessarily accompanied by a clumping of the density. The growth kinetics of the density domains is shown to be faster than the 1/3-law expected for variables governed by a conservation law. Other results presented include the suppression of density fluctuations in the stationary ordered nematic by the imposition of an orienting field. We close by posing some open questions.

arXiv comment22 pages, 13 figures

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Cited by in corpus (13)

• Active matter
• Designing, Synthesizing and Modeling Active Fluids
• Coarsening Dynamics in the Vicsek Model of Active Matter
• Defect Line Coarsening and Refinement in Active Nematics
• Universal properties of repulsive self-propelled particles and attractive driven particles
• Ordering dynamics of self-propelled particles in an inhomogeneous medium
• Active nematics with quenched disorder
• Polar swimmers induce several phases in active nematics
• Power-law correlation in the homogeneous disordered state of anisotropically self-propelled systems
• Ordering kinetics in active polar fluid
• How reciprocity impacts ordering and phase separation in active nematics?
• Ordering kinetics in the active Ising model
• Activity-induced phase transition and coarsening dynamics in dry apolar active nematics