Crystallization of Self-Propelled Hard Discs

We experimentally study the crystallization of a monolayer of vibrated discs with a built-in polar asymmetry, a model system of active liquids, and contrast it with that of vibrated isotropic discs. Increasing the packing fraction ϕ, the quasicontinuous crystallization reported for isotropic discs is replaced by a transition, or a crossover, towards a "self-melting" crystal. Starting from the liquid phase and increasing the packing fraction, clusters of dense hexagonal-ordered packed discs spontaneously form, melt, split, and merge, leading to a highly intermittent and heterogeneous dynamics. For a packing fraction larger than ϕ^{*}, a few large clusters span the system size. The cluster size distribution is monotonically decreasing for ϕ<ϕ^{*}, nonmonotonic for ϕ>ϕ^{*}, and is a power law at the transition. The system is, however, never dynamically arrested. The clusters permanently melt from place to place, forming droplets of an active liquid which rapidly propagate across the system. This self-melting crystalline state subsists up to the highest possible packing fraction, questioning the stability of the crystal for active discs unless it is at ordered close packing.