Selection mechanism at the onset of active turbulence
Active turbulence describes a flow regime that is erratic, and yet endowed with a characteristic length scale. It arises in animate soft-matter systems as diverse as bacterial baths , cell tissues and reconstituted cytoskeletal preparations. However, the way that these turbulent dynamics emerge in a...
| Autores: | , , , |
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| Tipo de recurso: | artículo |
| Estado: | Versión aceptada para publicación |
| Fecha de publicación: | 2019 |
| País: | España |
| Institución: | Varias* (Consorci de Biblioteques Universitáries de Catalunya, Centre de Serveis Científics i Acadèmics de Catalunya) |
| Repositorio: | Recercat. Dipósit de la Recerca de Catalunya |
| OAI Identifier: | oai:recercat.cat:2445/142058 |
| Acceso en línea: | https://hdl.handle.net/2445/142058 |
| Access Level: | acceso abierto |
| Palabra clave: | Turbulència Dinàmica de fluids Cristalls líquids nemàtics Turbulence Fluid dynamics Nematic liquid crystals |
| Sumario: | Active turbulence describes a flow regime that is erratic, and yet endowed with a characteristic length scale. It arises in animate soft-matter systems as diverse as bacterial baths , cell tissues and reconstituted cytoskeletal preparations. However, the way that these turbulent dynamics emerge in active systems has so far evaded experimental scrutiny. Here we unveil a direct route to active nematic turbulence by demonstrating that, for radially aligned unconfined textures, the characteristic length scale emerges at the early stages of the instability. We resolve two-dimensional distortions of a microtubule-based extensile system in space and time, and show that they can be characterized in terms of a growth rate that exhibits quadratic dependence on a dominant wavenumber. This wavelength selection mechanism is justified on the basis of a continuum model for an active nematic including viscous coupling to the adjacent fluid phase. Our findings are in line with the classical pattern-formation studies in non-active systems, bettering our understanding of the principles of active self-organization, and providing potential perspectives for the control of biological fluids. |
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