Activity waves in binary active colloids of Quincke rollers

doi:10.1088/1674-1056/ae07ae

Abstract Activity waves are popular in excitable systems. Here, we show that binary active colloids of Quincke rollers driven by an alternating electric field can also form activity waves. In the activity waves, Quincke rollers exhibit a memory of the direction of motion. This memory occurs at frequencies much smaller than that in monodisperse systems. It is found that the enhanced memory arises from the paired distinct rollers which break the dynamic symmetry because of the configuration-dependent dipole-dipole interactions. This finding demonstrates that dipole-dipole interactions between distinct active agents can significantly modify the collective dynamics of polydisperse active systems.

Keywords: polydisperse active systems activity waves dipole-dipole interactions

Received: 27 April 2025
Revised: 10 June 2025
Accepted manuscript online: 17 September 2025

PACS:	64.60.-i	(General studies of phase transitions)
	05.65.+b	(Self-organized systems)
	87.18.Gh	(Cell-cell communication; collective behavior of motile cells)
	82.70.Dd	(Colloids)

Fund: Project supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 11974255).

Corresponding Authors: Wen-De Tian, Kang Chen, Tian-Hui Zhang
E-mail: tianwende@suda.edu.cn;kangchen@suda.edu.cn;hangtianhui@suda.edu.cn

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Yuan Xie(谢圆), Xiao-Yi Zhou(周晓怡), Qi-Ying Ni(倪琦英), Wen-De Tian(田文得), Kang Chen(陈康), and Tian-Hui Zhang(张天辉) Activity waves in binary active colloids of Quincke rollers 2025 Chin. Phys. B 34 126401

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[1]	Dipole-dipole interactions enhance non-Markovianity and protect information against dissipation Munsif Jan, Xiao-Ye Xu(许小冶), Qin-Qin Wang(王琴琴), Zhe Chen(陈哲), Yong-Jian Han(韩永建), Chuan-Feng Li(李传锋), Guang-Can Guo(郭光灿). Chin. Phys. B, 2019, 28(9): 090303.

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