The mesoscopic collective motion of self-propelling active particle suspension confined in two-dimensional micro-channel

Abstract

The mesoscopic collective motion of self-propelling active particle suspension confined in high aspect ratio two-dimensional micro-channel is numerically studied through coupled equation by considering background thermal fluctuation, inter-particle interaction, self-propulsion and micro-channel confinement. Both the self-propulsion and micro-channel confinement are the factors driving the system away from equilibrium and sustaining heterogeneous motion. In such system, the propulsion induced particle accumulation around the channel walls is a universal phenomenon with spatial heterogeneity, where large fraction of particles are caged inside the accumulated cluster with local oscillation coexisting with few fast propelling particles in the center region. Although the formation mechanism of the induced accumulation is well studied, post the cluster formation, how the cluster evolves and its dynamical properties is rarely discussed. Based on the merits of equation, the dynamical evolution of induced accumulation is revealed by particle trajectories. It is found that the induced accumulation can be dissociated through the slow re-orientation process of few jammed particles. By using the idea of force chain network, how the transverse confinement couples the transverse displacement with the longitudinal displacement is evidenced. It is further verified by the statistical measurement of correlation probability between transverse and longitudinal displacements. The suppressed displacements in both directions is the origin leading to the slow dynamics of cluster evolution. Temporally, within the orientational relaxation time, this system exhibits non-trivial anomalous diffusion under the competition between the counter effects of self-propulsion (enhanced diffusion) and micro-channel confinement (suppressed diffusion). Additionally, by considering the orientational coupling, the deep hysteresis of accumulation has been found even for very weak orientational coupling strength.