Abstract
The amazing collective behaviors of active systems such as bird\r flocks, schools of fish, and colonies of microorganisms have long\r amazed scientists and laypeople alike. Understanding the physics of\r such systems is challenging due to their far-from-equilibrium\r dynamics, as well as the extreme diversity in their ingredients,\r relevant time- and length-scales, and emergent phenomenology. To make\r progress, one can categorize active systems by the symmetries of their\r constituent particles, as well as how activity is expressed. In this\r work, we examine two categories of active systems, and explore their\r phase behavior in detail.\r \r First, we study systems of self-propelled spherical particles moving\r in two dimensions. Despite the absence of an aligning interaction,\r this system displays complex emergent dynamics, including phase\r separation into a dense active solid and dilute gas. Using simulations\r and analytic modeling, we quantify the phase diagram and separation\r kinetics. We show that this nonequilibrium phase transition is\r analogous to an equilibrium vapor-liquid system, with binodal and\r spinodal curves and a critical point. We also characterize the dense\r active solid phase, a unique material which exhibits the structural\r signatures of a crystalline solid near the crystal-hexatic transition\r point, as well as anomalous dynamics including superdiffusive motion\r on intermediate timescales.\r \r We also explore the role of interparticle attraction in this system.\r We demonstrate that attraction drastically changes the phase diagram,\r which contains two distinct phase-separated regions and is reentrant\r as a function of propulsion speed. We interpret this complex situation\r with a simple kinetic model, which builds from the observed\r microdynamics of individual particles to a full description of the\r macroscopic phase behavior.\r \r We also study active nematics, liquid crystals driven out of\r equilibrium by energy-dissipating active stresses. The equilibrium\r nematic state is unstable in these materials, leading to beautiful and\r surprising behaviors including the spontaneous generation of\r topological defect pairs which stream through the system and later\r annihilate, yielding a complex, seemingly chaotic dynamical\r steady-state. Here, we describe the emergence of order from this\r chaos in the form of previously unknown broken-symmetry phases in\r which the topological defects themselves undergo orientational\r ordering. We have identified these defect-ordered phases in two\r realizations of an active nematic: first, a suspension of extensile\r bundles of microtubules and molecular motor proteins, and second, a\r computational model of extending hard rods. We will describe the\r defect-stabilized phases that manifest in these systems, our current\r understanding of their origins, and discuss whether such phases may be\r a general feature of extensile active nematics.