arXiv subjects

Chiu Fan Lee

Publications and source records attributed to Chiu Fan Lee.

At least 37 records · Page 2Linked to original sources

arXiv2022

Novel critical phenomena in compressible polar active fluids: A functional renormalization group approach

Active matter is not only relevant to living matter and diverse nonequilibrium systems, but also constitutes a fertile ground for novel physics. Indeed, dynamic renormalization group (DRG) analyses have uncovered many new universality classes (UCs) in polar active fluids - an archetype of active matter systems. However, due to the inherent technical difficulties in the DRG methodology, almost all previous studies have been restricted to polar active fluids in the incompressible or infinitely compressible (i.e., Malthusian) limits, and, when the $ε$-expansion was used in conjunction, to the one-loop level. Here, we use functional renormalization group methods to bypass some of these difficulties and unveil for the first time novel critical behavior in compressible polar active fluids, and calculate the corresponding critical exponents beyond the one-loop level. Specifically, focusing on a multicritical region of the system, we find three novel UCs and quantify their associate scaling behavior near the upper critical dimension $d_c = 6$.

cond-mat.soft↗

arXiv2022

Model of inverse bleb growth explains giant vacuole dynamics during cell mechanoadaptation

Cells can withstand hostile environmental conditions manifest as large mechanical forces such as pressure gradients and/or shear stresses by dynamically changing their shape. Such conditions are realized in the Schlemm's canal of the eye where endothelial cells that cover the inner vessel wall are subjected to the hydrodynamic pressure gradients exerted by the aqueous humor outflow. These cells form fluid-filled dynamic outpouchings of their basal membrane called \textit{giant vacuoles}. The inverse of giant vacuoles are reminiscent of cellular blebs, extracellular cytoplasmic protrusions triggered by local temporary disruption of the contractile actomyosin cortex. Inverse blebbing has been first observed experimentally during sprouting angiogenesis, but its underlying physical mechanisms are poorly understood. Here, we identify giant vacuole formation as inverse blebbing and formulate a biophysical model of this process. Our model elucidates how cell membrane mechanical properties affect the morphology and dynamics of giant vacuoles and predicts coarsening akin to Ostwald ripening between multiple invaginating vacuoles. Our results are in qualitative agreement with observations from the formation of giant vacuoles during perfusion experiments. Our model not only elucidates the biophysical mechanisms driving inverse blebbing and giant vacuole dynamics, but also identifies universal features of the cellular response to pressure loads that are relevant to many experimental contexts.

physics.bio-ph↗

arXiv2022

Hydrodynamic theory of two-dimensional incompressible polar active fluids with quenched and annealed disorder

We study the moving phase of two-dimensional (2D) incompressible polar active fluids in the presence of both quenched and annealed disorder. We show that long-range polar order persists even in this defect-ridden two-dimensional system. We obtain the large-distance, long-time scaling laws of the velocity fluctuations using three distinct dynamic renormalization group schemes. These are an uncontrolled one-loop calculation in exactly two dimensions, and two $d=(d_c-ε)$-expansions to $O(ε)$, obtained by two different analytic continuations of our 2D model to higher spatial dimensions: a ``hard" continuation which has $d_c={7\over 3}$, and a ``soft" continuation with $d_c={5\over 2}$. Surprisingly, the quenched and annealed parts of the velocity correlation function have the same anisotropy exponent and the relaxational and propagating parts of the dispersion relation have the same dynamic exponent in the nonlinear theory even though they are distinct in the linearized theory. This is due to anomalous hydrodynamics. Furthermore, all three renormalization schemes yield very similar values for the universal exponents, and, therefore, we expect the numerical values we predict for them to be highly accurate.

cond-mat.soft↗

arXiv2022

Packed swarms on dirt: two-dimensional incompressible flocks with quenched and annealed disorder

We show that incompressible polar active fluids can exhibit an ordered, coherently moving phase even in the presence of quenched disorder in two dimensions. Unlike such active fluids with annealed (i.e., time-dependent) disorder only, which behave like equilibrium ferromagnets with long-range interactions, this robustness against quenched disorder is a fundamentally non-equilibrium phenomenon. The ordered state belongs to a new universality class, whose scaling laws we calculate using three different renormalization group schemes, which all give scaling exponents within 0.02 of each other, indicating that our results are quite accurate. Our predictions can be quantitatively tested in readily available artificial active systems, and imply that biological systems such as cell layers can move coherently in vivo, where disorder is inevitable.

cond-mat.soft↗

arXiv2022

Incompressible polar active fluids with quenched disorder in dimensions $d> 2$

We present a hydrodynamic theory of incompressible polar active fluids with quenched disorder. This theory shows that such fluids can overcome the disruption caused by the quenched disorder and move coherently, in the sense of having a non-zero mean velocity in the hydrodynamic limit. However, the scaling behavior of this class of active systems cannot be described by linearized hydrodynamics in spatial dimensions between 2 and 5. Nonetheless, we obtain the exact dimension-dependent scaling exponents in these dimensions.

cond-mat.soft↗

arXiv2022

Diversity of phase transitions and phase separations in active fluids

Active matter is not only indispensable to our understanding of diverse biological processes, but also provides a fertile ground for discovering novel physics. Many emergent properties impossible for equilibrium systems have been demonstrated in active systems. These emergent features include motility-induced phase separation, long-ranged ordered (collective motion) phase in two dimensions, and order-disorder phase co-existences (banding and reverse-banding regimes). Here, we unify these diverse phase transitions and phase co-existences into a single formulation based on generic hydrodynamic equations for active fluids. We also reveal a novel co-moving co-existence phase and a putative novel critical point.

cond-mat.soft↗

arXiv2022

An Infinite Set of Integral Formulae for Polar, Nematic, and Higher Order Structures at the Interface of Motility-Induced Phase Separation

Motility-induced phase separation (MIPS) is a purely non-equilibrium phenomenon in which self-propelled particles phase separate without any attractive interactions. One surprising feature of MIPS is the emergence of polar, nematic, and higher order structures at the interfacial region, whose underlying physics remains poorly understood. Starting with a model of MIPS in which all many-body interactions are captured by an effective speed function and an effective pressure function that depend solely on the local particle density, I derive analytically an infinite set of integral formulae (IF) for the ordering structures at the interface. I then demonstrate that half of these IF are in fact exact for a wide class of active Brownian particle systems. Finally, I test the IF by applying them to numerical data from direct particle dynamics simulation and find that all the IF remain valid to a great extent.

cond-mat.soft↗

arXiv2021

Polar Fluctuations Lead to Extensile Nematic Behavior in Confluent Tissues

How can a collection of motile cells, each generating contractile nematic stresses in isolation, become an extensile nematic at the tissue-level? Understanding this seemingly contradictory experimental observation, which occurs irrespective of whether the tissue is in the liquid or solid states, is not only crucial to our understanding of diverse biological processes, but is also of fundamental interest to soft matter and many-body physics. Here, we resolve this cellular to tissue level disconnect in the small fluctuation regime by using analytical theories based on hydrodynamic descriptions of confluent tissues, in both liquid and solid states. Specifically, we show that a collection of microscopic constituents with no inherently nematic extensile forces can exhibit active extensile nematic behavior when subject to polar fluctuating forces. We further support our findings by performing cell level simulations of minimal models of confluent tissues.

cond-mat.soft↗

arXiv2021

Scaling Law and Universal Drop Size Distribution of Coarsening in Conversion-Limited Phase Separation

Phase separation is not only ubiquitous in diverse physical systems, but also plays an important organizational role inside biological cells. However, experimental studies of intracellular condensates (drops with condensed concentrations of specific collections of proteins and nucleic acids) have challenged the standard coarsening theories of phase separation. Specifically, the coarsening rates observed are unexpectedly slow for many intracellular condensates. Recently, Folkmann, et al. [Science {\bf 373}, 1218 (2021)] argued that the slow coarsening rate can be caused by the slow conversion of a condensate constituent between the state in the dilute phase and the condensate state. A consequence of this conversion-limited picture is that standard theories of coarsening in phase separation (Lifshitz-Slyozov--Wagner Ostwald ripening and drop coalescence schemes) no longer apply. Surprisingly, I show here that the model equations of conversion-limited phase separation can instead be mapped onto a grain growth model in a single-phase material in three dimensions. I further elucidate the universal coarsening behavior in the late stage using analytical and numerical methods.

cond-mat.soft↗

arXiv2021

Uncovering novel phase transitions in dense dry polar active fluids using a lattice Boltzmann method

The dynamics of dry active matter have implications for a diverse collection of biological phenomena spanning a range of length and time scales, such as animal flocking, cell tissue dynamics, and swarming of inserts and bacteria. Uniting these systems are a common set of symmetries and conservation laws, defining dry active fluids as a class of physical system. Many interesting behaviours have been observed at high densities, which remain difficult to simulate due to the computational demand. Here, we show how two-dimensional dry active fluids in a dense regime can be studied using a simple modification of the lattice Boltzmann method. We apply our method on a model that exhibits motility-induced phase separation, and an active model with contact inhibition of locomotion, which has relevance to collective cell migration. For the latter, we uncover multiple novel phase transitions: two first-order and one potentially critical. We further support our simulation results with an analytical treatment of the hydrodynamic equations obtained via a Chapman-Enskog coarse-graining procedure.

cond-mat.soft↗

arXiv2020

Hydrodynamics of Active Lévy Matter

Collective motion is often modeled within the framework of active fluids, where the constituent active particles, when interactions with other particles are switched off, perform normal diffusion at long times. However, in biology, single-particle superdiffusion and fat-tailed displacement statistics are also widespread. The collective properties of interacting systems exhibiting such anomalous diffusive dynamics, which we call active Lévy matter, cannot be captured by current active fluid theories. Here, we formulate a hydrodynamic theory of active Lévy matter by coarse-graining a microscopic model of aligning polar active particles that perform superdiffusion akin to Lévy flights. Applying a linear stability analysis on the hydrodynamic equations at the onset of collective motion, we find that, in contrast to its conventional counterpart, the order-disorder transition can become critical. We then estimate the corresponding critical exponents by finite size scaling analysis of numerical simulations. Our work highlights the novel physics in active matter that integrates both anomalous diffusive motility and inter-particle interactions.

cond-mat.stat-mech↗

arXiv2020

Active Lévy Matter: Anomalous Diffusion, Hydrodynamics and Linear Stability

Anomalous diffusion, manifest as a nonlinear temporal evolution of the position mean square displacement, and/or non-Gaussian features of the position statistics, is prevalent in biological transport processes. Likewise, collective behavior is often observed to emerge spontaneously from the mutual interactions between constituent motile units in biological systems. Examples where these phenomena can be observed simultaneously have been identified in recent experiments on bird flocks, fish schools and bacterial swarms. These results pose an intriguing question, which cannot be resolved by existing theories of active matter: How is the collective motion of these systems affected by the anomalous diffusion of the constituent units? Here, we answer this question for a microscopic model of active Lévy matter -- a collection of active particles that perform superdiffusion akin to a Lévy flight and interact by promoting polar alignment of their orientations. We present in details the derivation of the hydrodynamic equations of motion of the model, obtain from these equations the criteria for a disordered or ordered state, and apply linear stability analysis on these states at the onset of collective motion. Our analysis reveals that the disorder-order phase transition in active Lévy matter is critical, in contrast to ordinary active fluids where the phase transition is, instead, first-order. Correspondingly, we estimate the critical exponents of the transition by finite size scaling analysis and use these numerical estimates to relate our findings to known universality classes. These results highlight the novel physics exhibited by active matter integrating both anomalous diffusive single-particle motility and inter-particle interactions.

cond-mat.stat-mech↗

arXiv2020

A novel nonequilibrium state of matter: a $d=4-ε$ expansion study of Malthusian flocks

We show that "Malthusian flocks" -- i.e., coherently moving collections of self-propelled entities (such as living creatures) which are being "born" and "dying" during their motion -- belong to a new universality class in spatial dimensions $d>2$. We calculate the universal exponents and scaling laws of this new universality class to $O(ε)$ in a $d=4-ε$ expansion, and find these are different from the "canonical" exponents previously conjectured to hold for "immortal" flocks (i.e., those without birth and death) and shown to hold for incompressible flocks with spatial dimensions in the range of $2 < d \leq 4$. We also obtain a universal amplitude ratio relating the damping of transverse and longitudinal velocity and density fluctuations in these systems. Furthermore, we find a universal separatrix in real (${\bf r}$) space between two regions in which the equal time density correlation $\langleδρ({\bf r}, t)δρ(0, t)\rangle$ has opposite signs. Our expansion should be quite accurate in $d=3$, allowing precise quantitative comparisons between our theory, simulations, and experiments.

cond-mat.soft↗

arXiv2020

Moving, reproducing, and dying beyond Flatland: Malthusian flocks in dimensions $d>2$

cond-mat.soft↗

arXiv2019

Scaling behaviour of non-equilibrium planar $N$-atic spin systems under weak fluctuations

Starting from symmetry considerations, we derive the generic hydrodynamic equation of non-equilibrium $XY$ spin systems with $N$-atic symmetry under weak fluctuations. Through a systematic treatment we demonstrate that, in two dimensions, these systems exhibit two types of scaling behaviours. For $N=1$, they have long-range order and are described by the flocking phase of dry polar active fluids. For all other values of $N$, the systems exhibit quasi long-range order, as in the equilibrium $XY$ model at low temperature.

cond-mat.stat-mech↗

arXiv2019

Critical motility-induced phase separation belongs to the Ising universality class

A collection of self-propelled particles with volume exclusion interactions can exhibit the phenomenology of gas-liquid phase separation, known as motility-induced phase separation (MIPS). The non-equilibrium nature of the system is fundamental to the phase transition, however, it is unclear whether MIPS at criticality contributes a novel universality class to non-equilibrium physics. We demonstrate here that this is not the case by showing that a generic critical MIPS belongs to the Ising universality class with conservative dynamics.

cond-mat.soft↗

arXiv2018

Physics of Active Emulsions

Phase separating systems that are maintained away from thermodynamic equilibrium via molecular processes represent a class of active systems, which we call active emulsions. These systems are driven by external energy input for example provided by an external fuel reservoir. The external energy input gives rise to novel phenomena that are not present in passive systems. For instance, concentration gradients can spatially organise emulsions and cause novel droplet size distributions. Another example are active droplets that are subject to chemical reactions such that their nucleation and size can be controlled and they can spontaneously divide. In this review we discuss the physics of phase separation and emulsions and show how the concepts that governs such phenomena can be extended to capture the physics of active emulsions. This physics is relevant to the spatial organisation of the biochemistry in living cells, for the development novel applications in chemical engineering and models for the origin of life.

cond-mat.soft↗

arXiv2018

Novel physics arising from phase transitions in biology

Phase transitions, such as the freezing of water and the magnetisation of a ferromagnet upon lowering the ambient temperature, are familiar physical phenomena. Interestingly, such a collective change of behaviour at a phase transition is also of importance to living systems. From cytoplasmic organisation inside a cell to the collective migration of cell tissue during organismal development and wound healing, phase transitions have emerged as key mechanisms underlying many crucial biological processes. However, a living system is fundamentally different from a thermal system, with driven chemical reactions (e.g., metabolism) and motility being two hallmarks of its nonequilibrium nature. In this review, we will discuss how driven chemical reactions can arrest universal coarsening kinetics expected from thermal phase separation, and how motility leads to the emergence of a novel universality class when the rotational symmetry is spontaneously broken in an incompressible fluid.

physics.bio-ph↗