Fractal generation in a two-dimensional active-nematic fluid

DOI10.1063/5.0050795MaRDI QIDQ5011752zbMATH OpenOpenAlexFDO

Authors Kevin A. Mitchell, Amanda J. Tan, Jorge Arteaga, Linda S. Hirst

Publication date 27 August 2021

Published in Chaos: An Interdisciplinary Journal of Nonlinear Science (Search for Journal in Brave)

Full work available at URL https://arxiv.org/abs/2105.11673

Mathematics Subject Classification ID

Dynamical systems in biology (37N25) Biopropulsion in water and in air (76Z10) Biomechanics (92C10)

Abstract: Active fluids, composed of individual self-propelled agents, can generate complex large-scale coherent flows. A particularly important laboratory realization of such an active fluid is a system composed of microtubules, aligned in a quasi-two-dimensional (2D) nematic phase, and driven by ATP-fueled kinesin motor proteins. This system exhibits robust chaotic advection and gives rise to a pronounced fractal structure in the nematic contours. We characterize such experimentally derived fractals using the power spectrum and discover that the power spectrum decays as $$ for large wavenumbers $k$. The parameter $$ is measured for several experimental realizations. Though $$ is effectively constant in time, it does vary with experimental parameters, indicating differences in the scale-free behavior of the microtubule-based active nematic. Though the fractal patterns generated in this active system are reminiscent of passively advected dye in 2D chaotic flows, the underlying mechanism for fractal generation is more subtle. We provide a simple, physically inspired mathematical model of fractal generation in this system that relies on the material being locally compressible, though the total area of the material is conserved globally. The model also requires that large-scale density variations be injected into the material periodically. The model reproduces the power spectrum decay $$ seen in experiments. Linearizing the model of fractal generation about the equilibrium density, we derive an analytic relationship between $$ and a single dimensionless quantity $r$, which characterizes the compressibility.

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Cites work

• An analytical construction of the SRB measures for Baker-type maps
• Chaotic mixing in microfluidic devices driven by oscillatory cross flow
• The mathematics of taffy pullers

Cited in

(2)

• Fractal dimensions in fluid dynamics and their effects on the Rayleigh problem, the Burger's vortex and the Kelvin-Helmholtz instability
• Bifurcation analysis of spontaneous flows in active nematic fluids

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