2025/06/14 by Anson G. Thambi, Thambi, Anson G., William E. Uspal +1 · 1 citation
Engineering · Physics and Astronomy · #Advanced Materials and Mechanics #FOS: Physical sciences #Fluid Dynamics (physics.flu-dyn) #Micro and Nano Robotics #Modular Robots and Swarm Intelligence #Soft Condensed Matter (cond-mat.soft)
paper · pdf · doi:10.48550/arxiv.2506.12293
openalex publication_date 2025/06/14 · openalex created_date 2025/10/13 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
Hydrodynamic interactions driven by particle activity are ubiquitous in active colloidal systems. Although these interactions are strongly influenced by the interfacial actuation mechanism and geometry of the swimming particles, theoretical understanding of how these microscopic design parameters govern collective dynamics remains limited. Here, we investigate the collective dynamics of oblate spheroidal microswimmers. Using an approximate kinetic theory and corroborating boundary element method calculations, we demonstrate that breaking symmetries in both particle shape and interfacial actuation enables the emergence of dynamically stable immotile n-particle clusters. At larger scales, the clustering process drives the system into a dynamically arrested absorbing state characterized by disordered class I hyperuniform structures. Our analysis highlights the essential role of cluster-sourced long-range flows in establishing this long-range order. Overall, our findings reveal a robust, purely hydrodynamic mechanism for hierarchical self-organization in active matter systems, providing a novel strategy for engineering multifunctional hyperuniform materials.