Odd active solids: vortices, velocity oscillations and dissipation-free modes

A wide range of physical and biological systems, including colloidal magnets, granular spinners, and starfish embryos, are characterized by strongly rotating units that give rise to odd viscosity and odd elasticity. These active systems can be described using a coarse-grained model in which the pair...

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Main Authors: L Caprini, U Marini Bettolo Marconi
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: IOP Publishing 2025-01-01
Series:New Journal of Physics
Subjects:
Online Access:https://doi.org/10.1088/1367-2630/add366
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author L Caprini
U Marini Bettolo Marconi
author_facet L Caprini
U Marini Bettolo Marconi
author_sort L Caprini
collection DOAJ
description A wide range of physical and biological systems, including colloidal magnets, granular spinners, and starfish embryos, are characterized by strongly rotating units that give rise to odd viscosity and odd elasticity. These active systems can be described using a coarse-grained model in which the pairwise forces between particles include a transverse component compared to standard interactions due to a central potential. These non-potential, additional forces, referred to as odd interactions, do not conserve energy or angular momentum and induce rotational motion. Here, we study a two-dimensional crystal composed of inertial Brownian particles that interact via odd forces and are in thermal contact with their environment. We discover that, in the underdamped regime, the energy injected by odd forces can counteract dissipation due to friction, leading to quasi-dissipation-free excitations with finite frequency and wavelength. In the resulting non-equilibrium steady state, the system exhibits angular momentum and velocity correlations. When the strength of the odd forces exceeds a certain threshold or friction is too low, we show that a chiral active crystal with only harmonic springs becomes linearly unstable due to transverse fluctuations. This instability can be mitigated by introducing nonlinear central interactions, which suppress the divergence of short-wavelength velocity fluctuations and allows us to numerically explore the linearly unstable regime. This is characterized by pronounced temporal oscillations in the velocity featuring the existence of vortex structures and kinetic temperature values larger than the thermal temperature.
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spelling doaj-art-9f7b112e61334a0f803c83c82ad9f43c2025-08-20T02:59:07ZengIOP PublishingNew Journal of Physics1367-26302025-01-0127505440110.1088/1367-2630/add366Odd active solids: vortices, velocity oscillations and dissipation-free modesL Caprini0https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1384-0917U Marini Bettolo Marconi1https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2764-8259Sapienza University of Rome , Piazzale Aldo Moro 2, Rome, ItalySchool of Sciences and Technology, University of Camerino , Via Madonna delle Carceri, I-62032 Camerino, Italy; INFN , Perugia, ItalyA wide range of physical and biological systems, including colloidal magnets, granular spinners, and starfish embryos, are characterized by strongly rotating units that give rise to odd viscosity and odd elasticity. These active systems can be described using a coarse-grained model in which the pairwise forces between particles include a transverse component compared to standard interactions due to a central potential. These non-potential, additional forces, referred to as odd interactions, do not conserve energy or angular momentum and induce rotational motion. Here, we study a two-dimensional crystal composed of inertial Brownian particles that interact via odd forces and are in thermal contact with their environment. We discover that, in the underdamped regime, the energy injected by odd forces can counteract dissipation due to friction, leading to quasi-dissipation-free excitations with finite frequency and wavelength. In the resulting non-equilibrium steady state, the system exhibits angular momentum and velocity correlations. When the strength of the odd forces exceeds a certain threshold or friction is too low, we show that a chiral active crystal with only harmonic springs becomes linearly unstable due to transverse fluctuations. This instability can be mitigated by introducing nonlinear central interactions, which suppress the divergence of short-wavelength velocity fluctuations and allows us to numerically explore the linearly unstable regime. This is characterized by pronounced temporal oscillations in the velocity featuring the existence of vortex structures and kinetic temperature values larger than the thermal temperature.https://doi.org/10.1088/1367-2630/add366active matterodd elasticitynon-equilibrium crystals
spellingShingle L Caprini
U Marini Bettolo Marconi
Odd active solids: vortices, velocity oscillations and dissipation-free modes
New Journal of Physics
active matter
odd elasticity
non-equilibrium crystals
title Odd active solids: vortices, velocity oscillations and dissipation-free modes
title_full Odd active solids: vortices, velocity oscillations and dissipation-free modes
title_fullStr Odd active solids: vortices, velocity oscillations and dissipation-free modes
title_full_unstemmed Odd active solids: vortices, velocity oscillations and dissipation-free modes
title_short Odd active solids: vortices, velocity oscillations and dissipation-free modes
title_sort odd active solids vortices velocity oscillations and dissipation free modes
topic active matter
odd elasticity
non-equilibrium crystals
url https://doi.org/10.1088/1367-2630/add366
work_keys_str_mv AT lcaprini oddactivesolidsvorticesvelocityoscillationsanddissipationfreemodes
AT umarinibettolomarconi oddactivesolidsvorticesvelocityoscillationsanddissipationfreemodes