Multi-Particle Collision Framework for Active Polar Fluids

TL;DR

This paper develops a mesoscale simulation framework for active polar fluids using Multi-Particle Collision Dynamics, capturing flocking behavior, phase transitions, and responses to external influences in complex geometries.

Contribution

It introduces three variants of active-polar MPCD models, enabling mesoscale simulations of polar active fluids with complex boundary conditions and external fields.

Findings

All variants exhibit flocking transition at a critical activity.

External fields suppress banding phenomena.

Obstacles bias flocking direction, demonstrating model versatility.

Abstract

Sufficiently dense intrinsically out-of-equilibrium suspensions, such as those observed in biological systems, can be modelled as active fluids characterised by their orientational symmetry. While mesoscale numerical approaches to active nematic fluids have been developed, polar fluids are simulated as either ensembles of microscopic self-propelled particles or continuous hydrodynamic-scale equations of motion. To better simulate active polar fluids in complex geometries or as a solvent for suspensions, mesoscale numerical approaches are needed. In this work, the coarse-graining Multi-Particle Collision Dynamics (MPCD) framework is applied to three active particle models to produce mesoscale simulations of polar active fluids. The first active-polar MPCD (AP-MPCD) is a variant of the Vicsek model, while the second and third variants allow the speed of the particles to relax towards a self-propulsion speed subject to Andersen and Langevin thermostats, respectively. Each of these AP-MPCD variants exhibit a flocking transition at a critical activity and banding in the vicinity of the transition point. We leverage the mesoscale nature of AP-MPCD to explore flocking in the presence of external fields, which destroys banding, and anisotropic obstacles, which act as a ratchet that biases the flocking direction. These results demonstrate the capacity of AP-MPCD to capture the known phenomenology of polar active suspensions, and its versatility to study active polar fluids in complex scenarios.