Universal properties of repulsive self-propelled particles and attractive driven particles

TL;DR

This study reveals that uniaxially anisotropic self-propelled particles exhibit universal properties similar to driven particles with attractive interactions, including long-range correlations and anisotropic phase separation, regardless of their different origins.

Contribution

The paper demonstrates that anisotropic active Brownian particles share universal phase separation properties with driven lattice gases, supported by simulations and a coarse-grained Langevin model.

Findings

Long-range density correlations in homogeneous states

Anisotropic particle configurations in MIPS

Critical phenomena akin to uniaxial ferromagnets

Abstract

Motility-induced phase separation (MIPS) is a nonequilibrium phase separation that has a different origin from equilibrium phase separation induced by attractive interactions. Similarities and differences in collective behaviors between these two types of phase separation have been intensely discussed. Here, to study another kind of similarity between MIPS and attraction-induced phase separation under a nonequilibrium condition, we perform simulations of active Brownian particles with uniaxially anisotropic self-propulsion (uniaxial ABPs) in two dimensions. We find that (i) long-range density correlation appears in the homogeneous state, (ii) anisotropic particle configuration appears in MIPS, where the anisotropy removes the possibility of microphase separation suggested for isotropic ABPs [X.-Q. Shi et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. 125, 168001 (2020)], and (iii) critical phenomena for the anisotropic MIPS presumably belong to the universality class for two-dimensional uniaxial ferromagnets with dipolar long-range interactions. Properties (i)-(iii) are common to the well-studied randomly driven lattice gas (RDLG), which is a particle model that undergoes phase separation by attractive interactions under external driving forces, suggesting that the origin of phase separation is not essential for macroscopic behaviors of uniaxial ABPs and RDLG. Based on the observations in uniaxial ABPs, we construct a coarse-grained Langevin model, which shows properties (i)-(iii) and corroborates the generality of the findings.