Defect-Mediated Aggregation and Motility-Induced Phase Separation in Active XY Model

Abstract: We propose an ``active XY model'' that incorporates key elements of both the classical XY model and the Vicsek model to study the role of topological defects in active matter systems. This model features self-propelled particles with XY spin degrees of freedom on a lattice and introduces a self-propulsion parameter controlling the directional bias of particle motion. Using numerical simulations, we demonstrate that self-propulsion induces motility-induced phase separation (MIPS), where particles aggregate into clusters around topological defects with positive vortex charge. In contrast, negative charge defects tend to dissipate. We analyze the evolution of these clusters and show that their growth follows a two-stage exponential relaxation process, with characteristic time scaling as $\tau \sim L^{3}$ with the system size $L$, reminiscent of first-order phase separation in equilibrium systems. Our results highlight the important role of topological defects in phase separations and clustering behavior in active systems, bridging nonequilibrium dynamics and equilibrium theory.