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BP: Fachverband Biologische Physik
BP 10: Active Matter III (joint session BP/CPP/DY)
BP 10.9: Vortrag
Dienstag, 10. März 2026, 11:45–12:00, BAR/SCHÖ
Shared Laws of Pattern Formation in Reaction-Diffusion and Phase Separation — •Daniel Zhou1 and Erwin Frey1,2 — 1Arnold Sommerfeld Center for Theoretical Physics — 2Max Planck School Matter to Life
Many nonlinear field theories generate a strikingly similar repertoire of patterns: arrested coarsening, traveling waves, and spatiotemporal chaos appear both in phase-separating systems and in classical reaction-diffusion models. These descriptions have different physical origins, yet recent studies on Turing mixtures and foams in protein systems [1] and on chemotaxis-driven phase separation in cell populations [2] have already highlighted unexpected connections between these ostensibly different mechanisms, linking foam-like, phase-separating, and reaction-diffusion-type patterns. The present work revisits the relation between kinetic and phase-separating descriptions from a more general viewpoint. A unifying perspective is developed that places different modeling frameworks on comparable footing, identifies the conditions under which they yield effectively equivalent patterns, and suggests how stability criteria and design principles can be translated between them. This points toward a more systematic classification of pattern-forming dynamics that cuts across traditional divides between reaction-diffusion, chemotactic, and phase-separating systems.
[1] H. Weyer et. al, Deciphering the Interface Laws of Turing Mixtures and Foams, arXiv:2409.20070 (2024).
[2] H. Weyer et. al, Chemotaxis-Induced Phase Separation, Physical Review Letters 135, 208402 (2025).
Keywords: Reaction Diffusion; Theoretical; Pattern Formation