A comparative study between two models of active cluster crystals

Abstract

[eng] We study a system of active particles with soft repulsive interactions that lead to an active cluster-crystal phase in two dimensions. We use two different modelizations of the active force - Active Brownian particles (ABP) and Ornstein-Uhlenbeck particles (AOUP) - and focus on analogies and differences between them. We study the different phases appearing in the system, in particular, the formation of ordered patterns drifting in space without being altered. We develop an effective description which captures some properties of the stable clusters for both ABP and AOUP. As an additional point, we confine such a system in a large channel, in order to study the interplay between the cluster crystal phase and the well-known accumulation near the walls, a phenomenology typical of active particles. For small activities, we find clusters attached to the walls and deformed, while for large values of the active force they collapse in stripes parallel to the walls.