Work

Dynamic clustering of passive colloids in dense suspensions of motile bacteria

Year: 2022

Type: article

Abstract: Mixtures of active and passive particles are predicted to exhibit a variety of nonequilibrium phases. Here we report a dynamic clustering phase in mixtures of colloids and motile bacteria. We show that colloidal clustering results from a balance between bond breaking due to persistent active motion and bond stabilization due to torques that align active particle velocity tangentially to the passive particle surface. Furthermore, dynamic clustering spans a broad regime between diffusivity-based and motility-induced phase separation that subsumes typical bacterial motility parameters.

Source: Physical review. E

DOI: 10.1103/physreve.105.054605

Authors: Shreyas Gokhale, Junang Li, Alexandre Solon, Jeff Gore, Nikta Fakhri

Institutions: Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, Sorbonne Université, Laboratoire de Physique Théorique de la Matière Condensée

Language: English

Topic: Micro and Nano Robotics

Subfield: Condensed Matter Physics

Field: Physics and Astronomy

Domain: Physical Sciences

Open Access status: green

Funders: National Science Foundation, Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation, Human Frontier Science Program

Awards: G1871477277, Fellows Support to Advance the Physics of Living Systems, Influence of network topology on synchronization in connected populations, Research - Massachusetts Institute of Technology (2021)