Active smectics on a sphere

Fuente: arXiv
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Main Authors: Nestler, Michael, Praetorius, Simon, Huang, Zhi-Feng, Löwen, Hartmut, Voigt, Axel
Format: Preprint
Published: 2023
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author Nestler, Michael
Praetorius, Simon
Huang, Zhi-Feng
Löwen, Hartmut
Voigt, Axel
author_facet Nestler, Michael
Praetorius, Simon
Huang, Zhi-Feng
Löwen, Hartmut
Voigt, Axel
contents The dynamics of active smectic liquid crystals confined on a spherical surface is explored through an active phase field crystal model. Starting from an initially randomly perturbed isotropic phase, several types of topological defects are spontaneously formed, and then annihilate during a coarsening process until a steady state is achieved. The coarsening process is highly complex involving several scaling laws of defect densities as a function of time where different dynamical exponents can be identified. In general the exponent for the final stage towards the steady state is significantly larger than that in the passive and in the planar case, i.e., the coarsening is getting accelerated both by activity and by the topological and geometrical properties of the sphere. A defect type characteristic for this active system is a rotating spiral of evolving smectic layering lines. On a sphere this defect type also determines the steady state. Our results can in principle be confirmed by dense systems of synthetic or biological active particles.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2311_03836
institution arXiv
publishDate 2023
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Active smectics on a sphere
Nestler, Michael
Praetorius, Simon
Huang, Zhi-Feng
Löwen, Hartmut
Voigt, Axel
Soft Condensed Matter
The dynamics of active smectic liquid crystals confined on a spherical surface is explored through an active phase field crystal model. Starting from an initially randomly perturbed isotropic phase, several types of topological defects are spontaneously formed, and then annihilate during a coarsening process until a steady state is achieved. The coarsening process is highly complex involving several scaling laws of defect densities as a function of time where different dynamical exponents can be identified. In general the exponent for the final stage towards the steady state is significantly larger than that in the passive and in the planar case, i.e., the coarsening is getting accelerated both by activity and by the topological and geometrical properties of the sphere. A defect type characteristic for this active system is a rotating spiral of evolving smectic layering lines. On a sphere this defect type also determines the steady state. Our results can in principle be confirmed by dense systems of synthetic or biological active particles.
title Active smectics on a sphere
topic Soft Condensed Matter
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2311.03836