Banding, Excitability and Chaos in Active Nematic Suspensions
Abstract
Motivated by the observation of highly unstable flowing states in suspensions of microtubules and kinesin, we analyze a model of mutually-propelled filaments suspended in a solvent. The system undergoes a mean-field isotropic-nematic transition for large enough filament concentrations when the nematic order parameter is allowed to vary in space and time. We analyze the model in two contexts: a quasi-one-dimensional channel with no-slip walls and a two-dimensional box with periodic boundaries. Using stability analysis and numerical calculations we show that the interplay between non-uniform nematic order, activity, and flow results in a variety of complex scenarios that include spontaneous banded laminar flow, relaxation oscillations, and chaos.
Keywords
Cite
@article{arxiv.1110.4338,
title = {Banding, Excitability and Chaos in Active Nematic Suspensions},
author = {L. Giomi and L. Mahadevan and B. Chakraborty and M. F. Hagan},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1110.4338},
year = {2015}
}
Comments
15 pages, 15 figures