Polarization and dynamic phases of aligning active matter in periodic obstacle arrays
arXiv:2411.16882 · doi:10.1039/D4SM01404A
Abstract
We numerically examine a system of monodisperse self-propelled particles interacting with each other via simple steric forces and aligning torques moving through a periodic array of obstacles. Without obstacles, this system shows a transition to a polarized or aligned state for critical alignment parameters. In the presence of obstacles, there is still a polarization transition, but for dense enough arrays, the polarization is locked to the symmetry directions of the substrate. When the obstacle array is made anisotropic, at low densities the particles can form a quasi-isotropic state where the system can be polarized in any of the dominant symmetry directions. For intermediate anisotropy, the particles self-organize into a coherent lane state with one-dimensional polarization. In this phase, a small number of highly packed lanes are adjacent to less dense lanes that have the same polarization, but lanes further away can have the opposite polarization, so that global polarization is lost. For the highest anisotropy, hopping between lanes is suppressed, and the system forms uniformly dense uncoupled but polarized lanes.
8 pages, 8 figures
References in corpus (15)
- Novel type of phase transition in a system of self-driven particles
- Self-motile colloidal particles: from directed propulsion to random walk
- Motility-Induced Phase Separation
- Fluid dynamics and noise in bacterial cell-cell and cell-surface scattering
- Phase transition in the collective migration of tissue cells: experiment and model
- Spontaneous velocity alignment in Motility-induced Phase Separation
- Selective and Collective Actuation in Active Solids
- Giant fluctuations and structural effects in a flocking epithelium
- Characterization of MIPS in a suspension of repulsive Active Brownian Particles through dynamical features
- Chiral Active Particles are Sensitive Reporter to Environmental Geometry
- Small Obstacle in a Large Polar Flock
- Deflection of phototactic microswimmers through obstacle arrays
- Polar order, shear banding, and clustering in confined active matter
- Pattern Formation and Transport for Externally Driven Active Matter on Periodic Substrates
- Behavioral transition of a fish school in a crowded environment