Generalized thermodynamics of motility-induced phase separation: phase equilibria, Laplace pressure, and change of ensembles

2018/03/31 by Alexandre P. Solon, Alexandre P Solon, Joakim Stenhammar +4 · 165 citations
Materials Science · Physics and Astronomy · #Advanced Thermodynamics and Statistical Mechanics #Binodal #Formalism (music) #Generalization #Laplace transform #Micro and Nano Robotics #Non-equilibrium thermodynamics #Phase (matter) #Phase transition #Pickering emulsions and particle stabilization #Thermodynamic potential #cond-mat.stat-mech

paper · pdf · open access · doi:10.1088/1367-2630/aaccdd

published in New Journal of Physics 20(7), 075001 (IOP Publishing) · 33 pages, 14 figures

openalex created_date 2018/03/29 · openalex publication_date 2018/06/14 · arxiv created 2018/10/10 · arxiv updated 2018/10/11 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/06

Abstract

Motility-induced phase separation leads to cohesive active matter in the absence of cohesive forces. We present, extend and illustrate a recent generalized thermodynamic formalism which accounts for its binodal curve. Using this formalism, we identify both a generalized surface tension, that controls finite-size corrections to coexisting densities, and generalized forces, that can be used to construct new thermodynamic ensembles. Our framework is based on a non-equilibrium generalization of the Cahn–Hilliard equation and we discuss its application to active particles interacting either via quorum-sensing interactions or directly through pairwise forces.

Citations

• Pressure and Phase Equilibria in Interacting Active Brownian Spheres
• Athermal Phase Separation of Self-Propelled Particles with No Alignment
• Statistical Mechanics of Interacting Run-and-Tumble Bacteria
• Fast Parallel Algorithms for Short-Range Molecular Dynamics
• Definition and Relevance of Nonequilibrium Intensive Thermodynamic Parameters
• Free Energy of a Nonuniform System. I. Interfacial Free Energy
• Effective interactions in active Brownian suspensions
• Microscopic theory for the phase separation of self-propelled repulsive disks
• Scalar φ4 field theory for active-particle phase separation
• Continuum Theory of Phase Separation Kinetics for Active Brownian Particles
• Cooperative motion of active Brownian spheres in three-dimensional dense suspensions
• Classical Nucleation Theory Description of Active Colloid Assembly
• Theory of phase-ordering kinetics

Cited by

• Dissipation controls transport and phase transitions in active fluids: mobility, diffusion and biased ensembles
• Two-field theory for phase coexistence of active Brownian particles
• Interfacial-curvature-driven coarsening in mass-conserved reaction-diffusion systems
• Active Cahn-Hilliard theory for nonequilibrium phase separation: quantitative macroscopic predictions and a microscopic derivation