Antipolar ordering of topological defects in active liquid crystals

Abstract

ATP-driven microtubule-kinesin bundles can self-assemble into two-dimensional active liquid crystals (ALCs) that exhibit a rich creation and annihilation dynamics of topological defects, reminiscent of particle-pair production processes in quantum systems. This recent discovery has sparked considerable interest but a quantitative theoretical description is still lacking. We present and validate a minimal continuum theory for this new class of active matter systems by generalizing the classical Landau-de Gennes free-energy to account for the experimentally observed spontaneous buckling of motor-driven extensile microtubule bundles. The resulting model agrees with recently published data and predicts a regime of antipolar order. Our analysis implies that ALCs are governed by the same generic ordering principles that determine the non-equilibrium dynamics of dense bacterial suspensions and elastic bilayer materials. Moreover, the theory manifests an energetic analogy with strongly interacting quantum gases. Generally, our results suggest that complex non-equilibrium pattern-formation phenomena might be predictable from a few fundamental symmetry-breaking and scale-selection principles.

final accepted journal version; SI text and movies available at article on iop.org

References in corpus (15)

• Spontaneous motion in hierarchically assembled active matter
• Meso-scale turbulence in living fluids
• Spin-Injection Spectroscopy of a Spin-Orbit Coupled Fermi Gas
• Topology and Dynamics of Active Nematic Vesicles
• Reconfigurable knots and links in chiral nematic colloids
• Mechanisms of virus assembly
• Orientational order of motile defects in active nematics
• Hydrodynamics of self-propelled hard rods
• Stabilization of active matter by flow-vortex lattices and defect ordering
• Generic phase diagram of active polar films
• Excitable Patterns in Active Nematics
• Dynamical Density Functional Theory For Microswimmers
• Orientational properties of nematic disclinations
• Live Soap: Order, Fluctuations and Instabilities in Active Smectics
• Simulating Thin Sheets: Buckling, Wrinkling, Folding and Growth

Cited by in corpus (27)

• Non-reciprocal phase transitions
• Topological active matter
• Active Turbulence
• Self-organized dynamics and the transition to turbulence of confined active nematics
• Onset of meso-scale turbulence in living fluids
• Orientation of topological defects in 2D nematic liquid crystals
• Insensitivity of active nematic dynamics to topological constraints
• Probing the shear viscosity of an active nematic
• Hydrodynamics of Active Defects: from order to chaos to defect ordering
• Geometry-dependent viscosity reduction in sheared active fluids
• Understanding dense active nematics from microscopic models
• Data-driven discovery of active nematic hydrodynamics
• Active nematics with anisotropic friction: the decisive role of the flow aligning parameter
• Role of friction in multidefect ordering
• Multiscale Microtubule Dynamics in Active Nematics
• Multiphase field models for collective cell migration
• The role of fluid flow in the dynamics of active nematic defects
• Liquid Crystals on Deformable Surfaces
• Orientational correlations in active and passive nematic defects
• Properties of twisted topological defects in 2D nematic liquid crystals
• Binding self-propelled topological defects in active turbulence
• Dynamical Sub-classes of Dry Active Nematics
• Order-disorder transition in active nematic: A lattice model study
• Vorticity phase separation and defect lattices in the isotropic phase of active liquid crystals
• Active nematic defects in compressible and incompressible flows
• Quadrupolar active stress induces exotic phases of defect motion in active nematics
• Memory effects, arches and polar defect ordering at the cross-over from wet to dry active nematics