Dresden 2026 – scientific programme
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DY: Fachverband Dynamik und Statistische Physik
DY 49: Active Matter V (joint session DY/BP)
DY 49.5: Talk
Thursday, March 12, 2026, 10:45–11:00, ZEU/0160
Avalanche statistics in dense active matter — •Vinay Vaibhav1 and Peter Sollich1,2 — 1Institut für Theoretische Physik, University of Göttingen, Friedrich-Hund-Platz 1, 37077 Göttingen, Germany — 2Department of Mathematics, King’s College London, The Strand, London, UK
Reorganization processes in dense active matter remain a central open question in non-equilibrium physics. In particular, how persistent self-propulsion drives local rearrangements and triggers collective failure events is not well understood. Here, we investigate such activity-induced rearrangements, that sometimes rapidly cascade to avalanches, in a dense assembly of self-propelled particles with extremely persistent activity. These systems evolve through abrupt transitions between mechanically stable configurations, giving rise to rich intermittent behavior. Using large-scale simulations, we systematically characterize avalanche statistics across a range of system sizes and activity protocols. We quantify the scaling properties of avalanche-size distributions for two widely studied active matter models: active Brownian particles and active Ornstein-Uhlenbeck particles. By comparing these classes of dynamics, we identify how the nature of the propulsion mechanism influences the exponents associated with the avalanche size distribution. In addition, we report the frequency and temporal organization of avalanches. Our results provide a unified picture of how persistent activity drives rearrangements in dense active systems and highlight the connections between active intermittency, mechanical stability, and avalanche dynamics.
Keywords: Dense active matter; Avalanche; Mechanical response; Active glass