No Arabic abstract
The effect of quenched (frozen) orientational disorder on the collective motion of active particles is analyzed. We find that, as with annealed disorder (Langevin noise), active polar systems are far more robust against quenched disorder than their equilibrium counterparts. In particular, long ranged order (i.e., the existence of a non-zero average velocity $langle {bf v} rangle$) persists in the presence of quenched disorder even in spatial dimensions $d=3$, while it is destroyed even by arbitrarily weak disorder in $d le 4$ in equilibrium systems. Furthermore, in $d=2$, quasi-long-ranged order (i.e., spatial velocity correlations that decay as a power law with distance) occurs when quenched disorder is present, in contrast to the short-ranged order that is all that can survive in equilibrium. These predictions are borne out by simulations in both two and three dimensions.
We study in detail the hydrodynamic theories describing the transition to collective motion in polar active matter, exemplified by the Vicsek and active Ising models. Using a simple phenomenological theory, we show the existence of an infinity of propagative solutions, describing both phase and microphase separation, that we fully characterize. We also show that the same results hold specifically in the hydrodynamic equations derived in the literature for the active Ising model and for a simplified version of the Vicsek model. We then study numerically the linear stability of these solutions. We show that stable ones constitute only a small fraction of them, which however includes all existing types. We further argue that in practice, a coarsening mechanism leads towards phase-separated solutions. Finally, we construct the phase diagrams of the hydrodynamic equations proposed to qualitatively describe the Vicsek and active Ising models and connect our results to the phenomenology of the corresponding microscopic models.
The effect of quenched (frozen) disorder on the collective motion of active particles is analyzed. We find that active polar systems are far more robust against quenched disorder than equilibrium ferromagnets. Long ranged order (a non-zero average velocity $langle{bf v}rangle$) persists in the presence of quenched disorder even in spatial dimensions $d=3$; in $d=2$, quasi-long-ranged order (i.e., spatial velocity correlations that decay as a power law with distance) occurs. In equilibrium systems, only quasi-long-ranged order in $d=3$ and short ranged order in $d=2$ are possible. Our theoretical predictions for two dimensions are borne out by simulations.
We study in detail the active Ising model, a stochastic lattice gas where collective motion emerges from the spontaneous breaking of a discrete symmetry. On a 2d lattice, active particles undergo a diffusion biased in one of two possible directions (left and right) and align ferromagnetically their direction of motion, hence yielding a minimal flocking model with discrete rotational symmetry. We show that the transition to collective motion amounts in this model to a bona fide liquid-gas phase transition in the canonical ensemble. The phase diagram in the density/velocity parameter plane has a critical point at zero velocity which belongs to the Ising universality class. In the density/temperature canonical ensemble, the usual critical point of the equilibrium liquid-gas transition is sent to infinite density because the different symmetries between liquid and gas phases preclude a supercritical region. We build a continuum theory which reproduces qualitatively the behavior of the microscopic model. In particular we predict analytically the shapes of the phase diagrams in the vicinity of the critical points, the binodal and spinodal densities at coexistence, and the speeds and shapes of the phase-separated profiles.
We consider the isotropic-to-nematic transition in liquid crystals confined to aerogel hosts, and assume that the aerogel acts as a random field. We generally find that self-averaging is violated. For a bulk transition that is weakly first-order, the violation of self-averaging is so severe, even the correlation length becomes non-self-averaging: no phase transition remains in this case. For a bulk transition that is more strongly first-order, the violation of self-averaging is milder, and a phase transition is observed.
The spontaneous emergence of collective motion patterns is usually associated with the presence of a velocity alignment mechanism that mediates the interactions among the moving individuals. Despite of this widespread view, it has been shown recently that several flocking behaviors can emerge in the absence of velocity alignment and as a result of short-range, position-based, attractive forces that act inside a vision cone. Here, we derive the corresponding hydrodynamic equations of a microscopic position-based flocking model, reviewing and extending previously reported results. In particular, we show that three distinct macroscopic collective behaviors can be observed: i) the coarsening of aggregates with no orientational order, ii) the emergence of static, elongated nematic bands, and iii) the formation of moving, locally polar structures, which we call worms. The derived hydrodynamic equations indicate that active particles interacting via position-based interactions belong to a distinct class of active systems fundamentally different from other active systems, including velocity-alignment-based flocking systems.