New Journal of Physics
New Journal of Physics
5 years ago

Avalanche dynamics for active matter in heterogeneous media

Avalanche dynamics for active matter in heterogeneous media
Using numerical simulations, we examine the dynamics of run-and-tumble disks moving in a disordered array of fixed obstacles. As a function of increasing active disk density and activity, we find a transition from a completely clogged state to a continuous flowing phase, and in the large activity limit, we observe an intermittent state where the motion occurs in avalanches that are power law distributed in size with an exponent of ##IMG## [http://ej.iop.org/images/1367-2630/20/2/025002/njpaaa392ieqn1.gif] {$\beta =1.46$} . In contrast, in the thermal or low activity limit we find bursts of motion that are not broadly distributed in size. We argue that in the highly active regime, the system reaches a self-jamming state due to the activity-induced self-clustering, and that the intermittent dynamics is similar to that found in the yielding of amorphous solids. Our results show that activity is another route by which particulate systems can be tuned to a nonequ...

Publisher URL: http://iopscience.iop.org/1367-2630/20/2/025002

DOI: 10.1088/1367-2630/aaa392

You might also like
Discover & Discuss Important Research

Keeping up-to-date with research can feel impossible, with papers being published faster than you'll ever be able to read them. That's where Researcher comes in: we're simplifying discovery and making important discussions happen. With over 19,000 sources, including peer-reviewed journals, preprints, blogs, universities, podcasts and Live events across 10 research areas, you'll never miss what's important to you. It's like social media, but better. Oh, and we should mention - it's free.

  • Download from Google Play
  • Download from App Store
  • Download from AppInChina

Researcher displays publicly available abstracts and doesn’t host any full article content. If the content is open access, we will direct clicks from the abstracts to the publisher website and display the PDF copy on our platform. Clicks to view the full text will be directed to the publisher website, where only users with subscriptions or access through their institution are able to view the full article.