Migration of Active Rings in Porous Media

TL;DR

This study simulates active ring polymers navigating through disordered porous media, revealing how flexibility and activity influence their migration, trapping, and size changes, with implications for understanding biological and synthetic active matter.

Contribution

It introduces a simulation of active ring polymers in porous media, highlighting the effects of flexibility and activity on their migration and size dynamics, which was not previously explored.

Findings

Flexible rings navigate smoothly through media.

Semiflexible rings experience transient trapping.

Ring size changes depend on activity and flexibility.

Abstract

Inspired by how the shape deformations in active organisms help them to migrate through disordered porous environments, we simulate active ring polymers in two-dimensional random porous media. Flexible and inextensible active ring polymers navigate smoothly through the disordered media. In contrast, semiflexible rings undergo transient trapping inside the pore space; the degree of trapping is inversely correlated with the increase in activity. We discover that flexible rings swell while inextensible and semiflexible rings monotonically shrink upon increasing the activity. Together, our findings identify the optimal migration of active ring polymers through porous media.