Emergent vortices in populations of colloidal rollers

Antoine Bricard, Jean-Baptiste Caussin, Debasish Das, Charles Savoie, Vijayakumar Chikkadi, Kyohei Shitara, Oleksandr Chepizhko, Fernando Peruani, David Saintillan and Denis Bartolo ()
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Antoine Bricard: Laboratoire de Physique de l’Ecole Normale Supérieure de Lyon, Université de Lyon and CNRS
Jean-Baptiste Caussin: Laboratoire de Physique de l’Ecole Normale Supérieure de Lyon, Université de Lyon and CNRS
Debasish Das: University of California, San Diego
Charles Savoie: Laboratoire de Physique de l’Ecole Normale Supérieure de Lyon, Université de Lyon and CNRS
Vijayakumar Chikkadi: Laboratoire de Physique de l’Ecole Normale Supérieure de Lyon, Université de Lyon and CNRS
Kyohei Shitara: Kyushu University 33
Oleksandr Chepizhko: Odessa National University
Fernando Peruani: Université Nice Sophia Antipolis, Laboratoire J.A. Dieudonné
David Saintillan: University of California, San Diego
Denis Bartolo: Laboratoire de Physique de l’Ecole Normale Supérieure de Lyon, Université de Lyon and CNRS

Nature Communications, 2015, vol. 6, issue 1, 1-8

Abstract: Abstract Coherent vortical motion has been reported in a wide variety of populations including living organisms (bacteria, fishes, human crowds) and synthetic active matter (shaken grains, mixtures of biopolymers), yet a unified description of the formation and structure of this pattern remains lacking. Here we report the self-organization of motile colloids into a macroscopic steadily rotating vortex. Combining physical experiments and numerical simulations, we elucidate this collective behaviour. We demonstrate that the emergent-vortex structure lives on the verge of a phase separation, and single out the very constituents responsible for this state of polar active matter. Building on this observation, we establish a continuum theory and lay out a strong foundation for the description of vortical collective motion in a broad class of motile populations constrained by geometrical boundaries.

Date: 2015
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DOI: 10.1038/ncomms8470

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