Emergence of Living Chiral Superlattice from Biased-Active Particles

TL;DR

This paper introduces a new model of biased-active particles that leads to the emergence of a living chiral superlattice with dynamic properties, revealing novel collective behaviors driven by biased propulsion.

Contribution

The study presents the first general model of biased-active particles and demonstrates their ability to form ordered chiral superlattices with unique dynamic properties.

Findings

Formation of a highly ordered living superlattice with dynamic chirality.

Biased propulsion causes instability in particle pairs, leading to superlattice formation.

Optimal biased-angle and active force enhance long-range order and chirality.

Abstract

We introduce for the first time a general model of biased-active particles, where the direction of the active force has a biased angle from the principle orientation of the anisotropic interaction between particles. We find that a highly ordered living superlattice consisting of small clusters with dynamic chirality emerges in a mixture of such biased-active particles and passive particles. We show that the biased-propulsion-induced instability of active-active particle pairs and rotating of active-passive particle pairs are the very reason for the superlattice formation. In addition, a biased-angle-dependent optimal active force is most favorable for both the long-range order and global dynamical chirality of the system. Our results demonstrate the proposed biased-active particle providing a great opportunity to explore a variety of new fascinating collective behaviors beyond conventional active particles.