Nonequilibrium clustering of self-propelled rods

Motivated by aggregation phenomena in gliding bacteria, we study collective motion in a two-dimensional model of active, self-propelled rods interacting through volume exclusion. In simulations with individual particles, we find that particle clustering is facilitated by a sufficiently large packing...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inPhysical review. E, Statistical, nonlinear, and soft matter physics Vol. 74; no. 3 Pt 1; p. 030904
Main Authors Peruani, Fernando, Deutsch, Andreas, Bär, Markus
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published United States 01.09.2006
Subjects
Bacterial Physiological Phenomena
Computer Simulation
Models, Biological
Motion
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Summary:Motivated by aggregation phenomena in gliding bacteria, we study collective motion in a two-dimensional model of active, self-propelled rods interacting through volume exclusion. In simulations with individual particles, we find that particle clustering is facilitated by a sufficiently large packing fraction eta or length-to-width ratio kappa . The transition to clustering in simulations is well captured by a mean-field model for the cluster size distribution, which predicts that the transition values kappac of the aspect ratio for a fixed packing fraction eta are given by kappac=Ceta-1 where C is a constant.
ISSN:1539-3755
DOI:10.1103/PhysRevE.74.030904