Emerging Mesoscale Flows and Chaotic Advection in Dense Active Matter

We study two models of overdamped self-propelled disks in two dimensions, with and without aligning interactions. Both models support active mesoscale flows, leading to chaotic advection and transport over large length scales in their homogeneous dense fluid states, away from dynamical arrest. They form streams and vortices reminiscent of multiscale flow patterns in turbulence. We show that the characteristics of these flows do not depend on the specific details of the active fluids, and result from the competition between crowding effects and persistent propulsions. This observation suggests that dense active suspensions of self-propelled particles present a type of "active turbulence" distinct from collective flows reported in other types of active systems.