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arXiv · 2101.12055

Influence of interaction softness in phase separation of active particles

Monika Sanoria·Raghunath Chelakkot·Amitabha Nandi
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Abstract

Using a minimal model of active Brownian discs, we study the effect of a crucial parameter, namely the softness of the inter-particle repulsion, on motility-induced phase separation. We show that an increase in particle softness reduces the ability of the system to phase-separate and the system exhibit a delayed transition. After phase separation, the system state properties can be explained by a single relevant lengthscale, the effective inter-particle distance. We estimate this lengthscale analytically and use it to rescale the state properties at dense phase for systems with different interaction softness. Using this lengthscale, we provide a scaling relation for the time taken to phase separate which shows a high sensitivity to the interaction softness.

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Monika Sanoria, Raghunath Chelakkot, Amitabha Nandi. 2021-01-28. Influence of interaction softness in phase separation of active particles. https://doi.org/10.1103/physreve.103.052605

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