Issue 35, 2016

Pattern formation in chemically interacting active rotors with self-propulsion

Abstract

We demonstrate that active rotations in chemically signalling particles, such as autochemotactic E. coli close to walls, create a route for pattern formation based on a nonlinear yet deterministic instability mechanism. For slow rotations, we find a transient persistence of the uniform state, followed by a sudden formation of clusters contingent on locking of the average propulsion direction by chemotaxis. These clusters coarsen, which results in phase separation into a dense and a dilute region. Faster rotations arrest phase separation leading to a global travelling wave of rotors with synchronized roto-translational motion. Our results elucidate the physics resulting from the competition of two generic paradigms in active matter, chemotaxis and active rotations, and show that the latter provides a tool to design programmable self-assembly of active matter, for example to control coarsening.

Graphical abstract: Pattern formation in chemically interacting active rotors with self-propulsion

Supplementary files

Article information

Article type
Communication
Submitted
19 May 2016
Accepted
06 Aug 2016
First published
08 Aug 2016
This article is Open Access
Creative Commons BY license

Soft Matter, 2016,12, 7259-7264

Pattern formation in chemically interacting active rotors with self-propulsion

B. Liebchen, M. E. Cates and D. Marenduzzo, Soft Matter, 2016, 12, 7259 DOI: 10.1039/C6SM01162D

This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported Licence. You can use material from this article in other publications without requesting further permissions from the RSC, provided that the correct acknowledgement is given.

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