Negative interfacial tension in phase-separated active suspensions
Abstract
We study numerically a model for active suspensions of self-propelled repulsive particles, for which a stable phase separation into a dilute and a dense phase is observed. We exploit that for non-square boxes a stable "slab" configuration is reached, in which interfaces align with the shorter box edge. Evaluating a recent proposal for an intensive active swimming pressure, we demonstrate that the excess stress within the interface separating both phases is negative. The occurrence of a negative tension together with stable phase separation is a genuine non-equilibrium effect that is rationalized in terms of a positive stiffness, the estimate of which agrees excellently with the numerical data. Our results challenge effective thermodynamic descriptions and mappings of active suspensions onto passive pair potentials with attractions.
Cite
@article{arxiv.1412.4601,
title = {Negative interfacial tension in phase-separated active suspensions},
author = {Julian Bialké and Hartmut Löwen and Thomas Speck},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1412.4601},
year = {2015}
}