Collective behavior of composite active particles

TL;DR

This study uses simulations of composite active particles with variable shapes to explore how particle geometry influences collective motion and phase behavior in active matter systems.

Contribution

It introduces a novel simulation approach for composite particles with tunable shape, revealing how shape affects collective dynamics and phase transitions.

Findings

Composite particles can exhibit collective motion affecting effective Peclet number.

Particle shape influences phase behavior and clustering.

Shape tuning from concave to convex alters collective dynamics.

Abstract

We describe simulations of active Brownian particles carried out to explore how dynamics and clustering are influenced by particle shape. Our particles are composed of four disks, held together by springs, whose relative size can be varied. These compound objects can be tuned smoothly from having a concave to a convex surface. We show that even two of these composite particles can exhibit collective motion modifying the effective Peclet number. We then investigate how particle geometry can be used to explain the phase behaviour of many such particles.