Berlin 2024 – scientific programme
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DY: Fachverband Dynamik und Statistische Physik
DY 54: Active Matter V (joint session BP/DY)
DY 54.10: Talk
Friday, March 22, 2024, 12:15–12:30, H 1028
Expansion-flow driven orientation patterns in systems of growing rods — •Lukas Hupe1,2, Jonas Isensee1,2, Ramin Golestanian1,2,3, and Philip Bittihn1,2 — 1Max Planck Institute for Dynamics and Self-Organization, Göttingen, Germany — 2Institute for the Dynamics of Complex Systems, Faculty of Physics, University of Göttingen, Germany — 3Rudolf Peierls Centre for Theoretical Physics, University of Oxford, United Kingdom
In densely-packed two-dimensional systems of growing rods, such as bacteria, a number of experimental and numerical studies report long-range nematic alignment in the presence of confinement. In some geometries, spatially heterogeneous preferred orientations are observed. So far, these effects have been qualitatively explained using continuum theories of growing active nematics adapted to the specific geometry under investigation.
Here, we first show how the shear rate tensor of the expansion flow alone can be used to qualitatively predict time-averaged orientation patterns from the geometry of the confinement. We apply this method to a series of example geometries and compare with results from agent-based simulations. To quantitatively describe alignment strength, we then develop a simple model which takes into account advection and explore its potential for cross-prediction across different geometries.
Our results provide a unifying theoretical framework and highlight the role of domain geometry in shaping nematic order of growing systems.
Keywords: proliferating active matter; confinement geometry; active nematics; agent-based modelling