论文标题

活跃的列液滴的指法不稳定

Fingering Instability of Active Nematic Droplets

论文作者

Alert, Ricard

论文摘要

从有丝分裂的纺锤体到组织和生物膜,许多生物系统的作用为活性液滴,通常会自发地打破对称性并自发地改变形状。在这里,我表明活跃的列液滴可以经历指法不稳定。我考虑通过锚定在液滴界面上获得列表的活性流体,并且我预测其形态稳定性在三个无量纲参数方面:锚定角度,与液滴大小相比的列表的穿透长度和一个有效的毛细血管数。具有较大(收缩)应力和平面(同型)锚定的液滴在关键活动或液滴尺寸之上不稳定。这种不稳定性本质上是界面的:即使在活跃的nematics的大量不稳定性发生时,它也会通过界面运动与界面运动的耦合产生。与主动物质的动态状态特征相反,不稳定性可以产生静态指法模式。手指的数量随着活性的增加而增加,但随着列穿透长度而非单调的变化。总体而言,这些结果可以帮助理解生物系统的自组织形状,并在活性材料中设计模式。

From the mitotic spindle up to tissues and biofilms, many biological systems behave as active droplets, which often break symmetry and change shape spontaneously. Here, I show that active nematic droplets can experience a fingering instability. I consider an active fluid that acquires nematic order through anchoring at the droplet interface, and I predict its morphological stability in terms of three dimensionless parameters: the anchoring angle, the penetration length of nematic order compared to droplet size, and an active capillary number. Droplets with extensile (contractile) stresses and planar (homeotropic) anchoring are unstable above a critical activity or droplet size. This instability is interfacial in nature: It arises through the coupling of active flows with interface motion, even when the bulk instability of active nematics cannot take place. In contrast to the dynamic states characteristic of active matter, the instability could produce static fingering patterns. The number of fingers increases with activity but varies non-monotonically with the nematic penetration length. Overall, these results can help to understand the self-organized shapes of biological systems, and to design patterns in active materials.

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