Dresden 2026 – wissenschaftliches Programm

Bereiche | Tage | Auswahl | Suche | Aktualisierungen | Downloads | Hilfe

DY: Fachverband Dynamik und Statistische Physik

DY 44: Poster: Active Matter, Soft Matter, and Fluids

DY 44.6: Poster

Mittwoch, 11. März 2026, 15:00–18:00, P5

Continuum models for active matter: Derivation and overview — •Juliette Wegner and Sebastian Heidenreich — Physikalisch-Technische Bundesanstalt Braunschweig und Berlin, Abbestr. 2-12, 10587 Berlin, Germany

Turbulence and collective motion in active matter provide an interesting insight into non-equilibrium systems. Many different models have been suggested to describe the prevalent dynamics, mainly including polar and nematic systems. Each of these systems is developed under different assumptions considering different systems, but their similarities and differences are often not obvious.

In our poster we start from a simple micro-swimmer model to derive a general continuum model incorporating both nematic and polar order parameter equations, following the procedure from [1]. To this general continuum model, we then systematically introduced further restrictions and assumptions to derive more specific models which are in line with popular continuum models from literature. Specifically, we obtain models with nematic and polar symmetries similar to those studied by Saintillan and Shelley, as well as active Nematics, and active Polar suspension. Finally, we also consider theories that only incorporate the overall bacterial motion, such as the Toner Tu equation or the hydrodynamic approach of Slomka and Dunkel.

[1] Henning Reinken, Sabine HL Klapp, Markus Bär, and Sebastian Heidenreich. Derivation of a hydrodynamic theory for mesoscale dynamics in microswimmer suspensions. Physical Review E, 97(2):022613, 2018.

Keywords: active nematics; active polar fluids; continuum models