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Condensed Matter > Soft Condensed Matter
Title: Active Nematic Ratchet in Asymmetric Obstacle Arrays
(Submitted on 20 Mar 2024 (v1), last revised 21 Mar 2024 (this version, v2))
Abstract: We numerically investigate the effect of a periodic array of asymmetric obstacles in a two-dimensional active nematic. We find that activity in conjunction with the asymmetry leads to a ratchet effect or unidirectional flow of the fluid along the asymmetry direction. The directional flow is still present even in the active turbulent phase when the gap between obstacles is sufficiently small. We demonstrate that the dynamics of the topological defects transition from flow-mirroring to smectic-like as the gap between obstacles is made smaller, and explain this transition in terms of the pinning of negative winding number defects between obstacles. This also leads to a non-monotonic ratchet effect magnitude as a function of obstacle size, so that there is an optimal obstacle size for ratcheting at fixed activity.
Submission history
From: Cody Schimming [view email][v1] Wed, 20 Mar 2024 16:41:49 GMT (3090kb)
[v2] Thu, 21 Mar 2024 21:31:45 GMT (3089kb)
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