Self-assembly of active attractive spheres

Area of Science:

• Soft Matter Physics
• Statistical Mechanics
• Computational Physics

Background:

• Understanding self-assembly in active matter systems is crucial for designing novel materials and understanding biological processes.
• Lennard-Jones particles are a fundamental model for studying interatomic interactions and phase transitions in fluids.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate the self-assembly behavior of self-propelled Lennard-Jones particles.
• To explore the influence of rotational diffusion on the phase diagram and emergent structures of these active particles.

Main Methods:

• Brownian dynamics simulations were employed to model the system of self-propelled particles.
• The study systematically varied the rotational diffusion coefficient to observe changes in system behavior.

Main Results:

• At high rotational diffusion, the system resembles an equilibrium Lennard-Jones fluid.
• Lowering rotational diffusion transforms the liquid-gas coexistence into a dynamic percolating network state.
• Significant local particle alignment was observed in the network state, despite the lack of aligning interactions.

Conclusions:

• Rotational diffusion is a key parameter controlling self-assembly in this active particle system.
• A novel dynamic percolating network state emerges with unique properties, including spontaneous local alignment.
• The findings offer insights into the fundamental mechanisms driving self-organization in active matter.