Leaking elastic capacitor as model for active matter

TL;DR

The paper introduces the leaking elastic capacitor (LEC) model, a nonconservative system demonstrating self-oscillation and chaos, which acts as an autonomous engine capable of generating electromotive force and propagating electromechanical waves, offering insights into active matter.

Contribution

The LEC model provides a new, realistic framework for understanding active systems with electrical double layers in condensed matter, chemistry, and biology.

Findings

LEC exhibits limit cycles and chaos in simulations.

LEC can generate electromotive force without magnetic flux.

LEC acts as an autonomous electromechanical engine.

Abstract

We introduce the "leaking elastic capacitor" (LEC) model, a nonconservative dynamical system that combines simple electrical and mechanical degrees of freedom. We show that an LEC connected to an external voltage source can be destabilized (Hopf bifurcation) due to positive feedback between the mechanical separation of the plates and their electrical charging. Numerical simulation finds regimes in which the LEC exhibits a limit cycle (regular self-oscillation) or strange attractors (chaos). The LEC acts as an autonomous engine, cyclically performing work at the expense of the constant voltage source. We show that this mechanical work can be used to pump current, generating an electromotive force without any time-varying magnetic flux and in a thermodynamically irreversible way. We consider how this mechanism can sustain electromechanical waves propagating along flexible plates. We argue that the LEC model can offer a qualitatively new and more realistic description of important properties of active systems with electrical double layers in condensed-matter physics, chemistry, and biology.