Fluctuations, renormalizations, and a convective instability in driven wet active matter

Abstract

A scalar model of wet active matter in the presence of an imposed temperature gradient, or chemical potential gradient, is considered. It is shown that there is a convective instability driven by a (negative) activity parameter. In this non-equilibrium steady state the generic long-ranged correlations are computed and compared and contrasted with the analogous results in a passive fluid. In addition, the non-equilibrium Casimir pressure or force is computed. Singularities in various physical quantities as the instability is approached are determined. Finally, we give the generalized Lorenz equations characterizing the fluid behavior above the instability and contrast these equations to the Lorenz equations for the Rayleigh-Bernard instability in a passive fluid.