Activity-induced emergent flatness, instabilities and pattern formation in fluid membranes
Abstract
We show that microscopically inversion-asymmetric, permeable active fluid membranes are statistically flat and effectively inversion-symmetric at large scales. Their fluctuations are governed by an asymptotically exact linear hydrodynamic equation giving orientational long-range order and positional quasi-long-range order. At intermediate scales, their dynamics is described by a Kardar-Parisi-Zhang equation with spatially long-range noise, producing rough membranes with short-range translational and long-range orientational order described by exactly known scaling exponents. Active stresses can destabilize the membrane at long wavelengths, while sufficiently strong active permeation flow can drive finite-wavevector instabilities and pattern formation. These results reveal a novel activity-driven route to the destruction of flat fluid membranes.
Related
- Dynamic instabilities and pattern formation in chemotactic active matter
- Chemotaxis-induced linear instabilities and pattern formation in a reaction-diffusion model
- Thickness-dependent crack suppression and wrinkle formation in freestanding BaTiO3 membranes
- Emergent activity powers a path to chaos for pairs of acoustically trapped spheres
- Emergent topological structure in spontaneous brain-organoid activity
BibTeX
@misc{jana2026activityinduced,
title = {{Activity-induced emergent flatness, instabilities and pattern formation in fluid membranes}},
author = {Debayan Jana and Astik Haldar and Abhik Basu},
howpublished = {arXiv},
year = {2026},
month = sep,
doi = {10.48550/arxiv.2609.17716},
eprint = {2609.17716},
archivePrefix = {arXiv},
url = {https://arxiv.org/abs/2609.17716},
note = {CC BY 4.0},
}
RIS
TY - UNPB
TI - Activity-induced emergent flatness, instabilities and pattern formation in fluid membranes
AU - Debayan Jana
AU - Astik Haldar
AU - Abhik Basu
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/09/15
PB - arXiv
DO - 10.48550/arxiv.2609.17716
UR - https://arxiv.org/abs/2609.17716
AB - We show that microscopically inversion-asymmetric, permeable active fluid membranes are statistically flat and effectively inversion-symmetric at large scales. Their fluctuations are governed by an asymptotically exact linear hydrodynamic equation giving orientational long-range order and positional quasi-long-range order. At intermediate scales, their dynamics is described by a Kardar-Parisi-Zhang equation with spatially long-range noise, producing rough membranes with short-range translational and long-range orientational order described by exactly known scaling exponents. Active stresses can destabilize the membrane at long wavelengths, while sufficiently strong active permeation flow can drive finite-wavevector instabilities and pattern formation. These results reveal a novel activity-driven route to the destruction of flat fluid membranes.
ER -