Instabilities of 3D dry active nematic liquid crystal*

Suspensions of active nematic liquid crystals exhibit a flow-induced generic instability that leads to chaotic steady states. When the flow is damped by confinement, in 2D, additional mechanisms emerge that lead to behaviors such as ordering of +1/2 defects [1-4]. The phenomenology of such damped active nematics in 3D is completely unexplored. In this talk, we combine a generalized 3D dry active nematic hydrodynamics theory, that is the 3D analog of the Toner-tu model, and numerical simulations of semiflexible active nematic polymers. With these tools, we explore the characteristics of the instability in 3D overdamped systems, the properties of defect structures, and the statistical features of the nonequilibrium steady states.

Ref 1: DeCamp, Stephen J et al. “Orientational order of motile defects in active nematics.” Nature materials 

Ref 2: Putzig, Elias et al. "Instabilities, defects, and defect ordering in an overdamped active nematic."  Soft Matter

Ref 3: Shankar, Suraj et al. "Hydrodynamics of Active Defects: From Order to Chaos to Defect Ordering. " Phys. Rev. X

Ref 4: Patelli, Aurelio et al. "Understanding Dense Active Nematics from Microscopic Models." Phys. Rev. Lett.