Braided mixing in confined chiral active matter

Fuente: arXiv
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Hauptverfasser: Wang, Yue, Berx, Jonas
Format: Preprint
Veröffentlicht: 2025
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author Wang, Yue
Berx, Jonas
author_facet Wang, Yue
Berx, Jonas
contents Efficient mixing of fluids is essential in many practical applications to achieve homogeneity. For microscopic systems, however, both diffusion and turbulence are ineffective methods to achieve chaotic mixing due to the low Reynolds number, hence either active stirring or inducing turbulence through geometric boundary effects are generally implemented. Here, we study a modified chiral Vicsek model, where active microswimmers act as moving rods, stirring the surrounding substrate. We study the degree of mixing in the patterns formed by interplay between confinement, chiral motion and alignment interactions. This mixing is computed by considering the entanglement of spacetime trajectories of the particles, which forms a braid. Optimising the finite-time braiding exponent of this braid then yields a set of constituent parameters of the system, showing that a pattern consisting of a local stable vortex droplet and an ordered oscillating phase achieves the highest degree of mixing.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2505_01847
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Braided mixing in confined chiral active matter
Wang, Yue
Berx, Jonas
Soft Condensed Matter
Chaotic Dynamics
Efficient mixing of fluids is essential in many practical applications to achieve homogeneity. For microscopic systems, however, both diffusion and turbulence are ineffective methods to achieve chaotic mixing due to the low Reynolds number, hence either active stirring or inducing turbulence through geometric boundary effects are generally implemented. Here, we study a modified chiral Vicsek model, where active microswimmers act as moving rods, stirring the surrounding substrate. We study the degree of mixing in the patterns formed by interplay between confinement, chiral motion and alignment interactions. This mixing is computed by considering the entanglement of spacetime trajectories of the particles, which forms a braid. Optimising the finite-time braiding exponent of this braid then yields a set of constituent parameters of the system, showing that a pattern consisting of a local stable vortex droplet and an ordered oscillating phase achieves the highest degree of mixing.
title Braided mixing in confined chiral active matter
topic Soft Condensed Matter
Chaotic Dynamics
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2505.01847