Athermal phase separation of self-propelled particles with no alignment

We study numerically and analytically a model of self-propelled polar disks on a substrate in two dimensions. The particles interact via isotropic repulsive forces and are subject to rotational noise, but there is no aligning interaction. As a result, the system does not exhibit an ordered state. Th...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inPhysical review letters Vol. 108; no. 23; p. 235702
Main Authors Fily, Yaouen, Marchetti, M Cristina
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published United States 08.06.2012
Subjects
Kinetics
Models, Theoretical
Particle Size
Phase Transition
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Summary:We study numerically and analytically a model of self-propelled polar disks on a substrate in two dimensions. The particles interact via isotropic repulsive forces and are subject to rotational noise, but there is no aligning interaction. As a result, the system does not exhibit an ordered state. The isotropic fluid phase separates well below close packing and exhibits the large number fluctuations and clustering found ubiquitously in active systems. Our work shows that this behavior is a generic property of systems that are driven out of equilibrium locally, as for instance by self-propulsion.
ISSN:1079-7114
DOI:10.1103/PhysRevLett.108.235702