Structure and Dynamics of a Phase-Separating Active Colloidal Fluid

Abstract: We examine a minimal model for an active colloidal fluid in the form of self-propelled Brownian hard spheres that interact purely through excluded volume. Despite the absence of an aligning interaction, this system shows the signature behaviors of an active fluid, including anomalous number fluctuations and phase separation behavior. Using simulations and analytic modeling, we quantify the phase diagram and separation kinetics. The dense phase is a unique material that we call an active hexatic, which exhibits the structural signatures of a crystalline solid near the crystal-hexatic transition point, but the rheological and transport properties associated with a viscoelastic fluid.