Differential-activity driven instabilities in biphasic active matter
Biological Physics
2018-06-20 v1 Soft Condensed Matter
Abstract
Active stresses can cause instabilities in contractile gels and living tissues. Here we describe a generic hydrodynamic theory that treats these systems as a mixture of two phases of varying activity and different mechanical properties. We find that differential activity between the phases provides a mechanism causing a demixing instability. We follow the nonlinear evolution of the instability and characterize a phase diagram of the resulting patterns. Our study complements other instability mechanisms in mixtures such as differential growth, shape, motion or adhesion.
Cite
@article{arxiv.1710.03633,
title = {Differential-activity driven instabilities in biphasic active matter},
author = {Christoph Weber and Chris H. Rycroft and L. Mahadevan},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1710.03633},
year = {2018}
}