Phase Separation in a system of Brownian inertial rotors
Abstract
We uncover an emergent phase separation in a system of inertial dumbbells put into persistent rotation by a constant applied torque, breaking chiral symmetry, while interacting with each other through repulsive hard-core interactions. We numerically determine the phase diagram of the model, showing that there exists a binodal and a spinodal region where the system separates into a dense liquid and an ordered phase, which we identify as hexatic. An analysis of the system pressure unveils that the mechanism underlying the phase separation is heavily controlled by inertia. Locally injected kinetic energy is steadily stored into the system in a way that depends on density and that, at large inertia, results in a hot dilute and cool dense state, leading to a generically unstable homogeneous phase. The interplay between dumbbells' arrangement into clusters and chiral forces produces a spontaneous rigid rotation of the clusters around their centers of mass.
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BibTeX
@misc{carenza2026phase,
title = {{Phase Separation in a system of Brownian inertial rotors}},
author = {Lucio Mauro Carenza and Pasquale Digregorio and Massimiliano Semeraro and Antonio Suma and Ignacio Pagonabarraga and Giuseppe Gonnella},
howpublished = {arXiv},
year = {2026},
month = sep,
doi = {10.48550/arxiv.2609.21556},
eprint = {2609.21556},
archivePrefix = {arXiv},
url = {https://arxiv.org/abs/2609.21556},
}
RIS
TY - UNPB
TI - Phase Separation in a system of Brownian inertial rotors
AU - Lucio Mauro Carenza
AU - Pasquale Digregorio
AU - Massimiliano Semeraro
AU - Antonio Suma
AU - Ignacio Pagonabarraga
AU - Giuseppe Gonnella
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/09/18
PB - arXiv
DO - 10.48550/arxiv.2609.21556
UR - https://arxiv.org/abs/2609.21556
AB - We uncover an emergent phase separation in a system of inertial dumbbells put into persistent rotation by a constant applied torque, breaking chiral symmetry, while interacting with each other through repulsive hard-core interactions. We numerically determine the phase diagram of the model, showing that there exists a binodal and a spinodal region where the system separates into a dense liquid and an ordered phase, which we identify as hexatic. An analysis of the system pressure unveils that the mechanism underlying the phase separation is heavily controlled by inertia. Locally injected kinetic energy is steadily stored into the system in a way that depends on density and that, at large inertia, results in a hot dilute and cool dense state, leading to a generically unstable homogeneous phase. The interplay between dumbbells' arrangement into clusters and chiral forces produces a spontaneous rigid rotation of the clusters around their centers of mass.
ER -