Self-alignment and anti-self-alignment suppress motility-induced phase separation in active systems

In this article, we investigate the impact of self-alignment and anti-self-alignment on collective phenomena in dense active matter. These mechanisms correspond to effective torques that align or anti-align a particle's orientation with its velocity, as observed in active granular systems. In the context of motility-induced phase separation (MIPS)-a non-equilibrium coexistence between a dense clustered phase and a dilute homogeneous phase-both self- and anti-self-alignment are found to suppress clustering. In particular, increasing self-alignment strength first leads to flocking within the dense cluster and eventually to the emergence of a homogeneous flocking phase. In contrast, anti-self-alignment induces a freezing phenomenon, progressively reducing particle speed until MIPS is suppressed and a homogeneous phase is recovered. These results are supported by scaling arguments and are amenable to experimental verification in high-density active granular systems exhibiting self- or anti-self-alignment.