Non-reciprocal mixtures in suspension: the role of hydrodynamic interactions

Abstract

The collective chasing dynamics of non-reciprocally coupled densities leads to stable travelling waves which can be mapped to a model for emergent flocking. In this work, we couple the non-reciprocal Cahn-Hilliard model (NRCH) to a fluid to minimally describe scalar active mixtures in a suspension, with the aim to explore the stability of the waves, i.e. the emergent flock in the presence of self-generated fluid flows. We show that the emergent polarity is linearly unstable to perturbations for a specific sign of the active stress recalling instabilities of orientational order in a fluid. Using numerical simulations, we find however that non-reciprocity stabilizes the waves against the linear instability in a large region of the phase space.