Activity waves and freestanding vortices in populations of subcritical Quincke rollers.

ABSTRACT: Virtually all of the many active matter systems studied so far are made of units (biofilaments, cells, colloidal particles, robots, animals, etc.) that move even when they are alone or isolated. Their collective properties continue to fascinate, and we now understand better how they are unique to the bulk transduction of energy into work. Here we demonstrate that systems in which isolated but potentially active particles do not move can exhibit specific and remarkable collective properties. Combining experiments, theory, and numerical simulations, we show that such subcritical active matter can be realized with Quincke rollers, that is, dielectric colloidal particles immersed in a conducting fluid subjected to a vertical DC electric field. Working below the threshold field value marking th

SUBMITTER: Liu ZT 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8501844 | biostudies-literature | 2021 Oct

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature