Phase Separation in Systems of Interacting Active Brownian Particles

Continuum theory of phase separation kinetics for active Brownian particles.

Active Brownian particles (ABPs), when subject to purely repulsive interactions, are known to undergo activity-induced phase separation broadly resembling an equilibrium (attraction-induced) gas-liquid coexistence. Here we present an accurate continuum theory for the dynamics of phase-separating ABPs, derived by direct coarse graining, capturing leading-order density gradient terms alongside an...

Pressure and phase equilibria in interacting active brownian spheres.

We derive a microscopic expression for the mechanical pressure P in a system of spherical active Brownian particles at density ρ. Our exact result relates P, defined as the force per unit area on a bounding wall, to bulk correlation functions evaluated far away from the wall. It shows that (i) P(ρ) is a state function, independent of the particle-wall interaction; (ii) interactions contribute t...

D 1 Collective behavior of active Brownian particles: From microscopic clustering to macroscopic phase separation

Phase behaviour of active Brownian particles: the role of dimensionality.

Recently, there has been much interest in activity-induced phase separations in concentrated suspensions of "active Brownian particles" (ABPs), self-propelled spherical particles whose direction of motion relaxes through thermal rotational diffusion. To date, almost all these studies have been restricted to 2 dimensions. In this work we study activity-induced phase separation in 3D and compare ...

Nucleation pathway and kinetics of phase-separating active Brownian particles.

Suspensions of purely repulsive but self-propelled Brownian particles might undergo phase separation, a phenomenon that strongly resembles the phase separation of passive particles with attractions. Here we employ computer simulations to study the nucleation kinetics and the microscopic pathway active Brownian disks take in two dimensions when quenched from the homogeneous suspension to propuls...