Cooling mechanism controls motility-induced phase separation in inertial active liquids

Fuente: arXiv
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Hauptverfasser: Mayo, Manuel, Caprini, Lorenzo, de Soria, María Isabel García, Marconi, Umberto Marini Bettolo, Maynar, Pablo, Pizzoli, Luca, Puglisi, Andrea
Format: Preprint
Veröffentlicht: 2025
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author Mayo, Manuel
Caprini, Lorenzo
de Soria, María Isabel García
Marconi, Umberto Marini Bettolo
Maynar, Pablo
Pizzoli, Luca
Puglisi, Andrea
author_facet Mayo, Manuel
Caprini, Lorenzo
de Soria, María Isabel García
Marconi, Umberto Marini Bettolo
Maynar, Pablo
Pizzoli, Luca
Puglisi, Andrea
contents Motility-induced phase separation (MIPS) is a central collective phenomenon in active matter, theoretically established in the overdamped regime. We discover that the dynamical origin of MIPS is fundamentally altered by inertia, which induces a cooling mechanism absent in overdamped active matter. This conclusion is supported by an active variant of the direct simulation Monte Carlo method and by a kinetic theory for inertial self-propelled hard spheres derived from the microscopic dynamics. In contrast to the overdamped case, both analyses demonstrate that inertial MIPS does not rely on volume exclusion but on a cooling mechanism involving density, polarization, and temperature fields. This mechanism emerges from the competition between activity and a density dependent collision rate, arising from spatial correlations between colliding particles. These findings open a pathway to fundamentally connect inertial active matter with granular physics.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2512_17443
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Cooling mechanism controls motility-induced phase separation in inertial active liquids
Mayo, Manuel
Caprini, Lorenzo
de Soria, María Isabel García
Marconi, Umberto Marini Bettolo
Maynar, Pablo
Pizzoli, Luca
Puglisi, Andrea
Soft Condensed Matter
Motility-induced phase separation (MIPS) is a central collective phenomenon in active matter, theoretically established in the overdamped regime. We discover that the dynamical origin of MIPS is fundamentally altered by inertia, which induces a cooling mechanism absent in overdamped active matter. This conclusion is supported by an active variant of the direct simulation Monte Carlo method and by a kinetic theory for inertial self-propelled hard spheres derived from the microscopic dynamics. In contrast to the overdamped case, both analyses demonstrate that inertial MIPS does not rely on volume exclusion but on a cooling mechanism involving density, polarization, and temperature fields. This mechanism emerges from the competition between activity and a density dependent collision rate, arising from spatial correlations between colliding particles. These findings open a pathway to fundamentally connect inertial active matter with granular physics.
title Cooling mechanism controls motility-induced phase separation in inertial active liquids
topic Soft Condensed Matter
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2512.17443