How active forces influence nonequilibrium glass transitions

Abstract

Dense assemblies of self-propelled particles undergo a nonequilibrium form of glassy dynamics. Physical intuition suggests that increasing departure from equilibrium due to active forces fluidifies a glassy system. We falsify this belief by devising a model of self-propelled particles where increasing departure from equilibrium can both enhance or depress glassy dynamics, depending on the chosen state point. We analyze a number of static and dynamic observables and suggest that the location of the nonequilibrium glass transition is primarily controlled by the evolution of two-point static density correlations due to active forces. The dependence of the density correlations on the active forces varies non-trivially with the details of the system, and is difficult to predict theoretically. Our results emphasize the need to develop an accurate liquid state theory for nonequilibrium systems.

References in corpus (13)

• Theoretical perspective on the glass transition and amorphous materials
• A self-propelled particle in an external potential: is there an effective temperature?
• Effective Interactions in Active Brownian Suspensions
• Unified study of glass and jamming rheology in soft particle systems
• Multidimensional Stationary Probability Distribution for Interacting Active Particles
• Nonequilibrium equation of state in suspensions of active colloids
• Jamming versus Glass Transitions
• A mode coupling theory for Brownian particles in homogeneous steady shear flow
• Glassy dynamics of athermal self-propelled particles: Computer simulations and a nonequilibrium microscopic theory
• Clustering and heterogeneous dynamics in a kinetic Monte-Carlo model of self-propelled hard disks
• Increasing the density melts ultrasoft colloidal glasses
• A critical test of the mode-coupling theory of the glass transition
• Applicability of Effective Pair Potentials for Active Brownian Particles