Asymptotics in active matter #

Organisers: Benjamin Walker

Minisymposium abstract

In active matter, phenomena on the macroscale (in either time, space, or sometimes both) are often driven by behaviours that occur on the microscale. A striking example of such a macroscale behaviour is the surprising formation of turbulent patterns in dense suspensions of motile bacteria, which emerge from the accumulation of many small-scale effects. We can even find multiscale behaviours occurring at the level of a single active body, with many shape-changing swimmers undergoing rapid deformations that, on average, give rise to progression that only occurs over a significantly longer timescale.

In this minisymposium, we will focus on how asymptotic methods can be used to exploit the disparity in scales present in many active matter systems. In particular, we will showcase how various asymptotic approaches have been used to yield insights into emergent, macroscale dynamics through systematic analysis. In doing so, we will explore recent developments in a broad selection of active systems, including active droplets, microswimmers in flows, and quorum-sensing bacterial suspensions.

Asymptotics in active matter #

Emergent three-dimensional dynamics of rapidly spinning, self-propelled chiral particles in shear flow #

Modelling the transport of active particles in a dilute suspension #

Stability in an active exclusion process #

Weakly nonlinear dynamics of self-propelling active particles #

Motility-Induced Phase Separation in Signalling Bacteria #

Beyond Slender-body theory #