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Register a new userActivity-induced phase separation and self-assembly in mixtures of active and passive particles
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We investigate the phase behavior and kinetics of a monodisperse mixture of active (textit{i.e.}, self-propelled) and passive isometric Brownian particles through Brownian dynamics simulations and theory. As in a purely active system, motility of the active component triggers phase separation into a dense and a dilute phase; in the dense phase we further find active-passive segregation, with rafts of passive particles in a sea of active particles. We find that phase separation from an initially disordered mixture can occur with as little as 15 percent of the particles being active. Finally, we show that a system prepared in a suitable fully segregated initial state reproducibly self-assembles an active corona which triggers crystallization of the passive core by initiating a compression wave. Our findings are relevant to the experimental pursuit of directed self-assembly using active particles.
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Using computer simulations and dynamic mean-field theory, we demonstrate that fast enough rotation of circle active Brownian particles in two dimensions generates a dynamical clustering state interrupting the conventional motility induced phase separation (MIPS). Multiple clusters arise from the combination of the conventional MIPS cohesion, and the circulating current caused disintegration. The non-vanishing current in non-equilibrium steady states microscopically originates from the motility ``relieved by automatic rotation, which breaks the detailed balance at the continuum level. This mechanism sheds light on the understanding of dynamic clusters formation observed in a variety of active matter systems, and may help examine the generalization of effective thermodynamic concepts developed in the context of MIPS.
Self-propelled colloidal objects, such as motile bacteria or synthetic microswimmers, have microscopically irreversible individual dynamics - a feature they share with all living systems. The incoherent behaviour of individual swimmers can then be harnessed (or rectified) by microfluidic devices that create systematic motions impossible in equilibrium. Examples include flow of rotor particles round a circuit, steady rotation of a gear wheel in a bacterial bath, and pumping of bacteria between chambers by funnel gates. Here we present a computational proof-of-concept study, showing that such active rectification devices might be created directly from an unstructured primordial soup of motile particles, solely by using spatially modulated illumination to control their local propulsion speed. Alongside both microscopic irreversibility and speed modulation, our mechanism requires spatial symmetry breaking, such as a chevron light pattern, and strong interactions between particles, such as volume exclusion causing a collisional slow-down at high density. These four factors create a many-body rectification mechanism that generically differs from one-body microfluidic antecedents. Our work suggests that standard spatial-light-modulator technology might allow the programmable, light-induced self-assembly of active rectification devices from an unstructured particle bath.
We present a numerical study of the phase behavior of repulsively interacting active polar particles that align their active velocities nematically. The amplitude of the active velocity, and the noise in its orientational alignment control the active nature of the system. At high values of orientational noise, the structural fluid undergoes a continuous nematic-isotropic transition in active orientation. This transition is well separated from an active phase separation, characterized by the formation of high density hexatic clusters, observed at lower noise strengths. With increasing activity, the system undergoes a re-entrant fluid-phase separation-fluid transition. The phase coexistence at low activity can be understood in terms of motility induced phase separation. In contrast, the re-melting of hexatic clusters, and the collective motion at low orientational noise are dominated by flocking behavior. At high activity, sliding and jamming of polar sub-clusters, formation of grain boundaries, lane formation, and subsequent fragmentation of the polar patches mediate remelting.
We numerically examine mixtures of circularly moving and passive disks as a function of density and active orbit radius. For low or intermediate densities and/or small orbit radii, the system can organize into a reversible partially phase separated labyrinth state in which there are no collisions between disks, with the degree of phase separation increasing as the orbit radius increases. As a function of orbit radius, we find a divergence in the number of cycles required to reach a collision-free steady state at a critical radius, while above this radius the system remains in a fluctuating liquid state. For high densities, the system can organize into a fully phase separated state that is mostly reversible, but collisions at the boundaries between the phases lead to a net transport of disks along the boundary edges in a direction determined by the chirality of the active disk orbits. We map the dynamic phases as a function of density and orbit radii, and discuss the results in terms of the reversible-irreversible transition found in other periodically driven non-thermal systems. We also consider mixtures of circularly driven disks and ac driven disks where the ac drive is either in or out of phase with the circular motion, and find a rich variety of pattern forming and reentrant disordered phases.
Biomolecular condensates in cells are often rich in catalytically-active enzymes. This is particularly true in the case of the large enzymatic complexes known as metabolons, which contain different enzymes that participate in the same catalytic pathway. One possible explanation for this self-organization is the combination of the catalytic activity of the enzymes and a chemotactic response to gradients of their substrate, which leads to a substrate-mediated effective interaction between enzymes. These interactions constitute a purely non-equilibrium effect and show exotic features such as non-reciprocity. Here, we analytically study a model describing the phase separation of a mixture of such catalytically-active particles. We show that a Michaelis-Menten-like dependence of the particles activities manifests itself as a screening of the interactions, and that a mixture of two differently-sized active species can exhibit phase separation with transient oscillations. We also derive a rich stability phase diagram for a mixture of two species with both concentration-dependent activity and size dispersity. This work highlights the variety of possible phase separation behaviours in mixtures of chemically-active particles, which provides an alternative pathway to the passive interactions more commonly associated with phase separation in cells. Our results highlight non-equilibrium organizing principles that can be important for biologically relevant liquid-liquid phase separation.
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