Unifying hydrodynamic theory for motility-regulated active matter: from single particles to interacting polymers

Fuente: arXiv
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Main Authors: Dinelli, Alberto, Muzzeddu, Pietro Luigi
Format: Preprint
Published: 2026
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author Dinelli, Alberto
Muzzeddu, Pietro Luigi
author_facet Dinelli, Alberto
Muzzeddu, Pietro Luigi
contents Understanding how microscopic motility shapes emergent collective behaviors is a challenging task in active matter, especially when self-propulsion is regulated by external cues or via quorum-sensing interactions. To address this problem, we derive a closed hydrodynamics for scalar active matter with spatially-regulated motility, under general hypotheses for the microscopic dynamics of the particles' orientations. We show that, at large scales, the contribution of the latter is entirely captured by the autocorrelation tensor of the orientations. This allows us to establish a macroscopic equivalence within a broad class of motility-regulated active systems, from single particles to active polymers. Our formalism allows us to reveal a new form of motility-induced phase separation for quorum-sensing active polymers, which we term anti-MIPS, where dense phases exhibit enhanced activity relative to dilute regions. Our theory shows that anti-MIPS generically arises for motility-regulated agents with internal structure, uncovering the existence of several distinct transition pathways.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2604_09447
institution arXiv
publishDate 2026
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Unifying hydrodynamic theory for motility-regulated active matter: from single particles to interacting polymers
Dinelli, Alberto
Muzzeddu, Pietro Luigi
Statistical Mechanics
Soft Condensed Matter
Understanding how microscopic motility shapes emergent collective behaviors is a challenging task in active matter, especially when self-propulsion is regulated by external cues or via quorum-sensing interactions. To address this problem, we derive a closed hydrodynamics for scalar active matter with spatially-regulated motility, under general hypotheses for the microscopic dynamics of the particles' orientations. We show that, at large scales, the contribution of the latter is entirely captured by the autocorrelation tensor of the orientations. This allows us to establish a macroscopic equivalence within a broad class of motility-regulated active systems, from single particles to active polymers. Our formalism allows us to reveal a new form of motility-induced phase separation for quorum-sensing active polymers, which we term anti-MIPS, where dense phases exhibit enhanced activity relative to dilute regions. Our theory shows that anti-MIPS generically arises for motility-regulated agents with internal structure, uncovering the existence of several distinct transition pathways.
title Unifying hydrodynamic theory for motility-regulated active matter: from single particles to interacting polymers
topic Statistical Mechanics
Soft Condensed Matter
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2604.09447