Journal Article

Extreme active matter at high densities

Chaudhuri, Pinaki, Mandal, Rituparno, Bhuyan, Pranab Jyoti, Dasgupta, Chandan, Rao, Madan

2020

Overview

We study the remarkable behaviour of dense active matter comprising self-propelled particles at large Péclet numbers, over a range of persistence times, from τ p  → 0, when the active fluid undergoes a slowing down of density relaxations leading to a glass transition as the active propulsion force f reduces, to τ p  →  ∞ , when as f reduces, the fluid jams at a critical point, with stresses along force-chains. For intermediate τ p , a decrease in f drives the fluid through an intermittent phase before dynamical arrest at low f . This intermittency is a consequence of periods of jamming followed by bursts of plastic yielding associated with Eshelby deformations. On the other hand, an increase in f leads to an increase in the burst frequency; the correlated plastic events result in large scale vorticity and turbulence. Dense extreme active matter brings together the physics of glass, jamming, plasticity and turbulence, in a new state of driven classical matter. While active matter exhibits unusual dynamics at low density, high density behavior has not been explored. Mandal et al. show that extreme dense active matter, shows a rich spectrum of behaviour from intermittent plastic bursts and turbulence, to glassy states and jamming in the limit of infinite persistence time.

• Publisher: Nature Publishing Group UK,Nature Publishing Group,Nature Portfolio
• Subject: 639/766/530/2804 / 639/766/747 / Bursts / Critical point / Density / Fluid dynamics / Fluid flow / Glass transition / Humanities and Social Sciences / Jamming / multidisciplinary / Plasticity / Plastics / Science / Science (multidisciplinary) / Turbulence / Vorticity