Many-body activity emerging in a monolayer of air-fluidized hollow pentagons

Abstract

Particles governed by many-body interactions exhibit remarkably complex structures and dynamics. We experimentally investigate a monolayer of pentagon particles subjected to an up-lifting air flow which induces many-body aerodynamic interactions and stochastic motion akin to a thermal bath. To minimize air flow resistance, particles move collectively with interactions dictated by their geometry: hollow particles exhibit effective attraction, whereas solid particles repel each other. Under sufficiently large air flow, sparsely packed hollow pentagons overcome substrate friction and undergo long-time diffusive motion. Under lower air flow, we see a coexistence of isolated, static pentagons and densely packed, "active" clusters, whose particles display super-diffusivity. This "emergent activity" arises collectively when locally disordered structures interact with the air flow, resulting in correlated motion across broad temporal and spatial scales. Using Langevin dynamics simulations of two-dimensional attractive active pentagons, whose activity is an effective result of the local packing density, we further unravel the basic features of this emergent activity.