Helical Flow States in Active Nematics

Abstract

We show that confining extensile nematics in 3D channels leads to the emergence of two self-organized flow states with nonzero helicity. The first is a pair of braided anti-parallel streams - this double helix occurs when the activity is moderate, anchoring negligible and reduced temperature high. The second consists of axially aligned counter-rotating vortices - this grinder train arises between spontaneous axial streaming and the vortex lattice. These two unanticipated helical flow states illustrate the potential of active fluids to break symmetries and form complex but organized spatio-temporal structures in 3D fluidic devices.

4 pages, 4 figures, appendices

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Cited by in corpus (5)

• Spontaneous Self-Constraint in Active Nematic Flows
• Mesoscopic Simulations of Active-Nematics
• Defect dynamics in active smectics induced by confining geometry and topology
• Vorticity phase separation and defect lattices in the isotropic phase of active liquid crystals
• Active nematics in corrugated channels