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Spontaneous nematic polarisation and deformation in active media

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Abstract

We explore two minimal macroscopic continuous models with feedback interactions inducing spontaneous nematic polarisation and mechanical deformation of the active medium. In the model based on direct feedback between deformation and ordering, linear stability analysis predicts transition to a uniform deformed nematic state but ordering is frustrated in a constrained geometry. In the model mediated by an active or controlling species, transition to either stationary or wave patterns, depending on the sign of interaction coefficients, is predicted by linear analysis and confirmed by numerical simulations.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Chemical Engineering and Minerva Center for Nonlinear Physics of Complex Systems, Technion - Israel Institute of Technology, Haifa, 32000, Israel

    L. M. Pismen

  2. Département de Physique, Ecole Normale Supérieure, CNRS, 24 rue Lhomond, 75005, Paris, France

    M. H. Köpf

Authors
  1. L. M. Pismen
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  2. M. H. Köpf
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Correspondence to L. M. Pismen.

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Pismen, L.M., Köpf, M.H. Spontaneous nematic polarisation and deformation in active media. Eur. Phys. J. Spec. Top. 223, 1247–1257 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1140/epjst/e2014-02188-8

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1140/epjst/e2014-02188-8

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