Spatial Control of Compressible Active Fluids

Abstract

We study the response of compressible microtubule-based active fluids to sinusoidally varying activity patterns, using experiments and theory. Microtubules accumulate in low-activity regions and are depleted from high activity ones, with the density difference controlled by the wavelength of the activity pattern. To explain these observations the continuum model needs to account for both active stresses that are proportional to nematic order tensor and the isotropic active pressure. At short wavelengths, active vortices spanning adjacent high and low activity regions suppress density modulation. At larger wavelengths, vortical flows confined to the low or high activity region allow for the emergence of the density contrast. Our work shows that a minimal theoretical model of active compressible fluids accurately reproduces experiments, while elucidating the fundamental constraints on control protocols that seek to tame their chaotic dynamics.

Emergent Chiral Metal Phase in Compressible Quantum Hall Fluids
Suparna Sahoo, Suvankar Purkait, Pooja Agarwal +4
arXiv6 Sep 2026PreprintCC BY-NC-ND 4.0Full textCondensed matterarXiv
Consistent lattice Boltzmann model with body force and heat source for compressible flows of generic fluids
S. Chatterjee, R. M. Strässle, S. A. Hosseini +1
arXiv23 Sep 2026PreprintCC BY 4.0Full textFluid dynamicsarXiv
Spatial and Temporal Control of Avalanches in Dense Active-Passive Mixtures
Caterina Landi, Giulia Janzen, Chantal Valeriani +2
arXiv16 Oct 2026PreprintCC BY 4.0Full textCondensed matterarXiv
Order by Inertia in Spinning Active Matter: Holey Fluids and Spin-Textured Crystals
Camille Jorge, Denis Bartolo
Physical Review X6 Nov 2026Peer-reviewedCC BY 4.01 citedCondensed matterAPS
Confinement-Induced Pumping of Chiral Active Fluids
Joscha Mecke, Yongxiang Gao, Marisol Ripoll
arXiv11 Sep 2026PreprintCC BY 4.0Full textCondensed matter Statistical & nonlinear physicsarXiv

Cite

BibTeX RIS

BibTeX

@misc{cheng2026spatial,
  title = {{Spatial Control of Compressible Active Fluids}},
  author = {Yu-Chuan Cheng and Dimitris Krommydas and Seungwoo Shin and Paarth Gulati and Michael F. Hagan and Aparna Baskaran and Cristina M. Marchetti and Zvonimir Dogic},
  howpublished = {arXiv},
  year = {2026},
  month = oct,
  doi = {10.48550/arxiv.2610.30092},
  eprint = {2610.30092},
  archivePrefix = {arXiv},
  url = {https://arxiv.org/abs/2610.30092},
}

RIS

TY  - UNPB
TI  - Spatial Control of Compressible Active Fluids
AU  - Yu-Chuan Cheng
AU  - Dimitris Krommydas
AU  - Seungwoo Shin
AU  - Paarth Gulati
AU  - Michael F. Hagan
AU  - Aparna Baskaran
AU  - Cristina M. Marchetti
AU  - Zvonimir Dogic
PY  - 2026
DA  - 2026/10/21
PB  - arXiv
DO  - 10.48550/arxiv.2610.30092
UR  - https://arxiv.org/abs/2610.30092
AB  - We study the response of compressible microtubule-based active fluids to sinusoidally varying activity patterns, using experiments and theory. Microtubules accumulate in low-activity regions and are depleted from high activity ones, with the density difference controlled by the wavelength of the activity pattern. To explain these observations the continuum model needs to account for both active stresses that are proportional to nematic order tensor and the isotropic active pressure. At short wavelengths, active vortices spanning adjacent high and low activity regions suppress density modulation. At larger wavelengths, vortical flows confined to the low or high activity region allow for the emergence of the density contrast. Our work shows that a minimal theoretical model of active compressible fluids accurately reproduces experiments, while elucidating the fundamental constraints on control protocols that seek to tame their chaotic dynamics.
ER  -

Abstract

Related

Cite