Effective interactions in active Brownian suspensions

Farage, Thomas F. F.; Krinninger, Philip; Brader, Joseph M.

doi:10.1103/PhysRevE.91.042310

Back

Journal article

Effective interactions in active Brownian suspensions

Farage, Thomas F. F. Department of Physics, University of Fribourg, Switzerland
Krinninger, Philip Theoretische Physik II, Physikalisches Institut, Universität Bayreuth, Germany
Brader, Joseph M. Department of Physics, University of Fribourg, Switzerland

16.04.2015

Published in:

Physical Review E. - 2015, vol. 91, no. 4, p. 042310

English Active colloids exhibit persistent motion, which can lead to motility-induced phase separation (MIPS). However, there currently exists no microscopic theory to account for this phenomenon. We report a first-principles theory, free of fit parameters, for active spherical colloids, which shows explicitly how an effective many-body interaction potential is generated by activity and how this can rationalize MIPS. For a passively repulsive system the theory predicts phase separation and pair correlations in quantitative agreement with simulation. For an attractive system the theory shows that phase separation becomes suppressed by moderate activity, consistent with recent experiments and simulations, and suggests a mechanism for reentrant cluster formation at high activity.

Faculty

Faculté des sciences et de médecine

Department

Département de Physique

Language