Phase Separation Driven by Active Flows

Abstract

We extend the continuum theories of active nematohydrodynamics to model a two-fluid mixture with separate velocity fields for each fluid component, coupled through a viscous drag. The model is used to study an active nematic fluid, mixed with an isotropic fluid. We find micro-phase separation, and argue that this results from an interplay between active anchoring and active flows driven by concentration gradients. The results may be relevant to cell-sorting and the formation of lipid rafts in cell membranes.

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Cited by in corpus (7)

• Cell Sorting in an Active Nematic Vertex Model
• Traveling waves at the surface of active liquid crystals
• Cell sorting by active forces in a phase-field model of cell monolayers
• Phase Ordering in Binary Mixtures of Active Nematic Fluids
• Active fluids form system-spanning filamentary networks
• Phase Separation in Mixtures of Nematic and Isotropic Fluids
• Topological sorting of magnetic colloidal bipeds