Continuum Theory of Phase Separation Kinetics for Active Brownian Particles

Joakim Stenhammar*, Adriano Tiribocchi, Rosalind J. Allen, Davide Marenduzzo, Michael E. Cates

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

Abstract / Description of output

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 effective bulk free energy. Such gradient terms do not obey detailed balance; yet we find coarsening dynamics closely resembling that of equilibrium phase separation. Our continuum theory is numerically compared to large-scale direct simulations of ABPs and accurately accounts for domain growth kinetics, domain topologies, and coexistence densities.

Original languageEnglish
Article number145702
Number of pages5
JournalPhysical Review Letters
Volume111
Issue number14
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 2 Oct 2013

Keywords / Materials (for Non-textual outputs)

  • MOLECULAR-DYNAMICS
  • FLUCTUATIONS
  • BACTERIA
  • MATTER

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