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Updated: Dec 20, 2025

Forming, Confining, and Observing Microtubule-Based Active Nematics
Published on: January 13, 2023
Time reversal symmetry breaking and odd viscosity in active fluids: Green-Kubo and NEMD results
Cory Hargus1, Katherine Klymko2, Jeffrey M Epstein3
1Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, University of California, Berkeley, California 94720, USA.
Abstract:
Active fluids, which are driven at the microscale by non-conservative forces, are known to exhibit novel transport phenomena due to the breaking of time reversal symmetry. Recently, Epstein and Mandadapu [arXiv:1907.10041 (2019)] obtained Green-Kubo relations for the full set of viscous coefficients governing isotropic chiral active fluids, including the so-called odd viscosity, invoking Onsager's regression hypothesis for the decay of fluctuations in active non-equilibrium steady states. In this Communication, we test these Green-Kubo relations using molecular dynamics simulations of a canonical model system consisting of actively torqued dumbbells. We find the resulting odd and shear viscosity values from the Green-Kubo relations to be in good agreement with values measured independently through non-equilibrium molecular dynamics flow simulations. This provides a test of the Green-Kubo relations and lends support to the application of the Onsager regression hypothesis in relation to viscous behaviors of active matter systems.
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