Emergent short-range repulsion for attractively coupled active particles

Fuente: arXiv
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Autores principales: Sarkar, Ritwick, Basu, Urna
Formato: Preprint
Publicado: 2024
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author Sarkar, Ritwick
Basu, Urna
author_facet Sarkar, Ritwick
Basu, Urna
contents We show that heterogeneity in self-propulsion speed can lead to the emergence of a robust effective short-range repulsion among active particles interacting via long-range attractive potentials. Using the example of harmonically coupled active Brownian particles, we analytically derive the stationary distribution of the pairwise distances and reveal that the heterogeneity in propulsion speeds induces a characteristic scale of repulsion between particles. This length scale algebraically increases with the difference in their self-propulsion speeds. In contrast to the conventional view that activity in active matter systems typically leads to effective attraction, our results demonstrate that activity can give rise to an emergent repulsive interaction. This phenomenon is universal, independent of the specific dynamics of the particles or the presence of thermal fluctuations. We also discuss possible experimental realization of this counter-intuitive phenomenon.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2412_12934
institution arXiv
publishDate 2024
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Emergent short-range repulsion for attractively coupled active particles
Sarkar, Ritwick
Basu, Urna
Statistical Mechanics
We show that heterogeneity in self-propulsion speed can lead to the emergence of a robust effective short-range repulsion among active particles interacting via long-range attractive potentials. Using the example of harmonically coupled active Brownian particles, we analytically derive the stationary distribution of the pairwise distances and reveal that the heterogeneity in propulsion speeds induces a characteristic scale of repulsion between particles. This length scale algebraically increases with the difference in their self-propulsion speeds. In contrast to the conventional view that activity in active matter systems typically leads to effective attraction, our results demonstrate that activity can give rise to an emergent repulsive interaction. This phenomenon is universal, independent of the specific dynamics of the particles or the presence of thermal fluctuations. We also discuss possible experimental realization of this counter-intuitive phenomenon.
title Emergent short-range repulsion for attractively coupled active particles
topic Statistical Mechanics
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2412.12934