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  • Letter
  • Open Access

Spontaneous flow instabilities of active polar fluids in three dimensions

Abhinav Singh1,2,3,4,*, Quentin Vagne5, Frank Jülicher6,3,7, and Ivo F. Sbalzarini1,2,3,7,4,†

  • 1Faculty of Computer Science, Technische Universität Dresden, Dresden, Germany
  • 2Max Planck Institute of Molecular Cell Biology and Genetics, Dresden, Germany
  • 3Center for Systems Biology Dresden, Dresden, Germany
  • 4Center for Scalable Data Analytics and Artificial Intelligence ScaDS.AI, Dresden/Leipzig, Germany
  • 5University of Geneva, Geneva, Switzerland
  • 6Max Planck Institute for the Physics of Complex Systems, Dresden, Germany
  • 7Cluster of Excellence Physics of Life, TU Dresden, Dresden, Germany

  • *absingh@mpi-cbg.de
  • †ivos@mpi-cbg.de
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Phys. Rev. Research 5, L022061 – Published 22 June, 2023

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevResearch.5.L022061

Abstract

Active polar fluids exhibit spontaneous flow when sufficient active stress is generated by internal molecular mechanisms. This is also referred to as an active Fréedericksz transition. Experiments have revealed the existence of competing in-plane and out-of-plane instabilities in three-dimensional active matter. So far, however, a theoretical model reconciling all observations is missing. In particular, the role of boundary conditions in these instabilities still needs to be explained. Here, we characterize the spontaneous flow transition in a symmetry-preserving three-dimensional active Ericksen-Leslie model, showing that the boundary conditions select the emergent behavior. Using nonlinear numerical solutions and linear perturbation analysis, we explain the mechanism for both in-plane and out-of-plane instabilities under extensile active stress for perpendicular polarity anchoring at the boundary, whereas parallel anchoring only permits in-plane flows under contractile stress or out-of-plane wrinkling under extensile stress.

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Phys. Rev. Research 5, L022061– Published 22 June, 2023
  • Received 24 January 2023
  • Accepted 9 June 2023
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