Phase field models of active matter

TL;DR

This paper reviews phase field modeling techniques for active matter, illustrating how they capture complex interfaces and can be applied to biological tissues, active nematics, and active shells.

Contribution

It provides a comprehensive overview of phase field models for active matter, including fundamental equations, physical property recovery, and applications to biological and active systems.

Findings

Phase field models effectively describe active matter interfaces.

Coupling phase fields with active matter captures complex behaviors.

Frameworks for tissue and collective cell migration are proposed.

Abstract

We present an overview of phase field modeling of active matter systems as a tool for capturing various aspects of complex and active interfaces. We first describe how interfaces between different phases are characterized in phase field models and provide simple fundamental governing equations that describe their evolution. For a simple model, we then show how physical properties of the interface, such as surface tension and interface thickness, can be recovered from these equations. We then explain how the phase field formulation can be coupled to various active matter realizations and discuss three particular examples of continuum biphasic active matter: active nematic-isotropic interfaces, active matter in viscoelastic environments, and active shells in fluid background. Finally, we describe how multiple phase fields can be used to model active cellular monolayers and present a general framework that can be applied to the study of tissue behaviour and collective migration.