Phase separation in ordered polar active fluids: A new Universality class

Abstract

We show that phase separation in ordered polar active fluids belongs to a new universality class. This describes large collections of self-propelled entities (``flocks"), all spontaneously moving in the same direction, in which attractive interactions (which can be caused by, e.g., autochemotaxis) cause phase separation: the system spontaneously separates into a high density band and a low density band, moving parallel to each other, and to the direction of mean flock motion, at different speeds. The upper critical dimension for this transition is $d_c=5$, in contrast to the well-known $d_c=4$ of equilibrium phase separation. We obtain the large-distance, long-time scaling laws of the velocity and density fluctuations, which are characterized by universal critical correlation length and order parameter exponents $\nu_\perp$, $\nu_\parallel$ and $\beta$ respectively. We calculate these to $\mathcal{O} (\epsilon)$ in a $d=5-\epsilon$ expansion.