Related Experiment Video
Updated: Jul 30, 2025

Controlling Flow Speeds of Microtubule-Based 3D Active Fluids Using Temperature
Published on: November 26, 2019
Inertia changes evolution of motility-induced phase separation in active matter across particle activity
Nikita P Kryuchkov1, Artur D Nasyrov1, Konstantin D Gursky1
1Bauman Moscow State Technical University, 2nd Baumanskaya Street 5, 105005 Moscow, Russia.
Abstract:
The effects of inertia in active matter and motility-induced phase separation (MIPS) have attracted growing interest but still remain poorly studied. We studied MIPS behavior in the Langevin dynamics across a broad range of particle activity and damping rate values with molecular dynamic simulations. Here we show that the MIPS stability region across particle activity values consists of several domains separated by discontinuous or sharp changes in susceptibility of mean kinetic energy. These domain boundaries have fingerprints in the system's kinetic energy fluctuations and characteristics of gas, liquid, and solid subphases, such as the number of particles, densities, or the power of energy release due to activity. The observed domain cascade is most stable at intermediate damping rates but loses its distinctness in the Brownian limit or vanishes along with phase separation at lower damping values.
Related Concept Videos
Actin Polymerization and Cell Motility
Actin cytoskeleton dynamics can produce pushing, pulling, and resistance forces that help the cell to migrate....
Mechanism of Ciliary Motion
The cilia are made up of microtubules in a 9+2 arrangement, with nine microtubule doublet ring bundles, surrounding a pair of central singlet microtubule bundles. The doublet microtubule bundles are...
Principle of Linear Impulse and Momentum for a System of Particles
Notably, internal forces between particles, occurring in equal and opposite collinear pairs, cancel out and are not part of the equation of motion. This exclusion simplifies the...
Moment of Inertia
If a rigid body is rotating about an axis but is not in translational motion, its translational kinetic energy is zero. However, since each particle undergoes rotational motion, it possesses non-zero velocity and kinetic energy. Thus, the kinetic energy of the rigid body, which is the sum of the...
Cytoskeletal Coordination in Cell Migration
Microtubules in Cell Motility

