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BP: Fachverband Biologische Physik

BP 28: Active Matter 4 - organized by Carsten Beta (Potsdam), Andreas Menzel (Magdeburg) and Holger Stark (Berlin) (joint session DY/BP)

BP 28.2: Talk

Wednesday, March 24, 2021, 11:20–11:40, DYb

A minimal model for dynamical symmetry breaking in active matter — Matthew Davison and •Patrick Pietzonka — Department of Applied Mathematics and Theoretical Physics, University of Cambridge, UK

It is well known that asymmetrically shaped passive particles immersed in active matter move in a persistent direction. Recent work provides a thermodynamic framework and design principles for engines exploiting this mechanism [1]. We build on these results and reveal that symmetric passive particles in contact with active matter perform such a persistent motion as well. Its direction is determined through spontaneous symmetry breaking and remains fixed in time in the limit of a large number of active particles. We present an analytically solvable one-dimensional model for a single passive particle interacting with many active particles, which provides a physical understanding of these effects.

[1] P. Pietzonka et al., Phys Rev. X 9, 041032 (2019)