Anomalous fluctuations in a droplet of chemically active colloids or enzymes

Abstract

Chemically active colloids or enzymes cluster into dense droplets driven by their phoretic response to collectively generated chemical gradients. Employing Brownian dynamics simulation techniques, our study of the dynamics of such a chemically active droplet uncovers a rich variety of structures and dynamical properties, including the full range of fluid-like to solid-like behaviour, and non-Gaussian positional fluctuations. Our work sheds light on the complex dynamics of the active constituents of metabolic clusters, which are the main drivers of non-equilibrium activity in living systems.