Dresden 2020 – scientific programme

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BP: Fachverband Biologische Physik

BP 41: Active Matter V (joint session DY/BP/CPP)

BP 41.5: Talk

Friday, March 20, 2020, 11:00–11:15, ZEU 160

Dynamical states in underdamped active matter — •Dominic Arold and Michael Schmiedeberg — Institut für Theoretische Physik I, Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg, Staudtstraße 7, 91058 Erlangen, Germany

Many active matter systems are well approximated as overdamped, meaning that any inertial momentum is immediately dissipated by the environment. On the other hand, for macroscopic active systems, the time scale of inertial motion can become large enough to be relevant for the dynamics already on the single-particle level [1]. This raises the question of how collective dynamics in active matter is influenced by inertia. We propose a coarse-grained continuum model for underdamped active matter based on a dynamical density functional theory for passive systems [2]. Further, we apply the model to a system with short-range alignment of polar orientations whereas long-ranged correlations of orientational order are suppressed. Our simulations of under- and overdamped dynamics both predict a structured laning state. However, activity-induced convective flows only present in the underdamped model destabilize this state in a certain parameter regime, leading to a collective motion state which is not predicted in the overdamped limit. A turbulent transition regime between the two states is distinguished by strong density fluctuations.
[1] Scholz C et al. 2018 Nature communications 9 5156
[2] Archer A J 2009 The Journal of chemical physics 130 014509