Cesare Nardini — CEA University Paris-Saclay #
Active Phase Separation #
Phase-separating active systems display surprising phenomenology that is absent in passive fluid-fluid or liquid-vapor phase separation: activity can cause the Ostwald process to go into reverse, or capillary waves to become unstable. When this happens, active systems self-organize in novel types of phase-separated morphologies which are either impossible in passive systems or require fine-tuning to be obtained. The universal properties of these phase-separated states, such as the critical exponents associated with the roughening of the interface, also differ from those of passive fluids. I will discuss how such findings can be rationalized via field theoretical analysis, particle-based modeling, and their experimental relevance.