Cluster Phases and Bubbly Phase Separation in Active Fluids: Reversal of the Ostwald Process

Tjhung, Elsen; Nardini, Cesare; Cates, Michael E.

Abstract

It is known that purely repulsive self-propelled colloids can undergo bulk liquid-vapor phase separation. In experiments and large-scale simulations, however, more complex steady states are also seen, comprising a dynamic population of dense clusters in a sea of vapor, or dilute bubbles in a liquid. Here, we show that these microphase-separated states should emerge generically in active matter, without any need to invoke system-specific details. We give a coarse-grained description of them and predict transitions between regimes of bulk phase separation and microphase separation. We achieve these results by extending the ϕ 4 field theory of passive phase separation to allow for all local currents that break detailed balance at leading order in the gradient expansion. These local active currents, whose form we show to emerge from coarse graining of microscopic models, include a mixture of irrotational and rotational contributions and can be viewed as arising from an effective nonlocal chemical potential. Such contributions influence, and in some parameter ranges reverse, the classical Ostwald process that would normally drive bulk phase separation to completion.

Citation

Tjhung, E., Nardini, C., & Cates, M. E. (2018). Cluster Phases and Bubbly Phase Separation in Active Fluids: Reversal of the Ostwald Process. Physical Review X, 8(3), Article 031080. https://doi.org/10.1103/physrevx.8.031080

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Online Publication Date: Sep 24, 2018
• Publication Date: 2018-07
• Deposit Date: Feb 10, 2020
• Journal: Physical Review X
• Electronic ISSN: 2160-3308
• Publisher: American Physical Society
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 8
• Issue: 3
• Article Number: 031080
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/physrevx.8.031080
• Public URL: https://durham-repository.worktribe.com/output/1278000