Geometry-Induced Dynamics of Confined Chiral Active Matter

TL;DR

This paper investigates how physical confinement and chirality influence the collective behavior of active particles, revealing that boundary effects and particle interactions critically determine the resulting motion patterns.

Contribution

It provides new insights into the interplay between confinement, chirality, and collective dynamics in active matter through numerical simulations.

Findings

Chiral active particles exhibit diverse collective motion under confinement.

Boundary effects are crucial in controlling particle orientation and pattern formation.

The balance between particle interactions and boundary influences determines the collective behavior.

Abstract

Controlling the motion of active matter is a central issue that has recently garnered significant attention in fields ranging from non-equilibrium physics to chemical engineering and biology. Distinct methods for controlling active matter have been developed, and physical confinement to limited space and active matter with broken rotational symmetry (chirality) are two prominent mechanisms. However, the interplay between pattern formation due to physical constraints and the ordering by chiral motion needs to be better understood. In this study, we conduct numerical simulations of chiral self-propelled particles under circular boundary confinement. The collective motion of confined self-propelled particles can take drastically different forms depending on their chirality. The balance of orientation changes between particle interaction and the boundary wall is essential for generating ordered collective motion. Our results clarify the role of the steric boundary effect in controlling chiral active matter.