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  • Open Access

Theory of Reversed Ripening in Active Phase Separating Systems

Jonathan Bauermann1,*, Giacomo Bartolucci2, Christoph A. Weber3, and Frank Jülicher4,5,6,†

  • *Contact author: jbauermann@fas.harvard.edu
  • †Contact author: julicher@pks.mpg.de
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Phys. Rev. Lett. 135, 148201 – Published 1 October, 2025

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/f5x9-wp3g

Abstract

The ripening dynamics in passive systems is governed by the theory of Lifshitz-Slyosov-Wagner (LSW). Here, we present an analog theory for reversed ripening in active systems. To derive the dynamic theory for the droplet size distribution, we consider a minimal ternary emulsion with one active reaction, leading to one conserved quantity. Even for cases where single droplets constantly grow, coupling many droplets via the conserved density in the far field leads to a self-organized reversal of ripening and, thus, a monodisperse emulsion. For late times, we find a scaling ansatz leading to the collapse of the rescaled size distributions, different from the LSW theory. This scaling behavior arises from a stable fixed point in the single droplet dynamics and may capture the late-time behavior of many active matter systems exhibiting reversed ripening.

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Phys. Rev. Lett. 135, 148201– Published 1 October, 2025
  • Received 4 February 2025
  • Revised 8 August 2025
  • Accepted 8 September 2025
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Published by the American Physical Society under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license. Further distribution of this work must maintain attribution to the author(s) and the published article’s title, journal citation, and DOI. Open access publication funded by the Max Planck Society.

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