Emergent mesoscale correlations in active solids with noisy chiral dynamics

• Published in: Soft matter 2024-10, Vol.2 (39), p.7865-7879
• Main Authors: Shee, Amir, Henkes, Silke, Huepe, Cristián
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Chiral dynamics; Chirality; Correlation; Elastic analysis; Energy spectra; Noise levels; Noise propagation; Phase diagrams; System dynamics; Wave propagation
• ISSN: 1744-683X; 1744-6848; 1744-6848
• DOI: 10.1039/d4sm00958d

We present the linear response theory for an elastic solid composed of active Brownian particles with intrinsic individual chirality, deriving both a normal mode formulation and a continuum elastic formulation. Using this theory, we compute analytically the velocity correlations and energy spectra under different conditions, showing an excellent agreement with simulations. We generate the corresponding phase diagram, identifying chiral and achiral disordered regimes (for high chirality or noise levels), as well as chiral and achiral states with mesoscopic-range order (for low chirality and noise). The chiral ordered states display mesoscopic spatial correlations and oscillating time correlations, but no wave propagation. In the high chirality regime, we find a peak in the elastic energy spectrum that leads to a non-monotonic behavior with increasing noise strength that is consistent with the emergence of the 'hammering state' recently identified in chiral glasses. Finally, we show numerically that our theory, despite its linear response nature, can be applied beyond the idealized homogeneous solid assumed in our derivations. Indeed, by increasing the level of activity, we show that it remains a good approximation of the system dynamics until just below the melting transition. In addition, we show that there is still an excellent agreement between our analytical results and simulations when we extend our results to heterogeneous solids composed of mixtures of active particles with different intrinsic chirality and noise levels. The derived linear response theory is therefore robust and applicable to a broad range of real-world active systems. Our work provides a thorough analytical and numerical description of the emergent states in a densely packed system of chiral self-propelled Brownian disks, thus allowing a detailed understanding of the phases and dynamics identified in a minimal chiral active system. We present the linear response theory for an elastic solid composed of active Brownian particles with intrinsic individual chirality, deriving both a normal mode formulation and a continuum elastic formulation.