Coarse-graining dense, deformable active particles

Abstract

We coarse-grain a model of closely-packed ellipses that can vary their aspect ratio to derive continuum equations for materials comprising confluent deformable particles such as epithelial cell layers. We show that contractile nearest neighbour interactions between ellipses can lead to their elongation and nematic ordering. Adding flows resulting from active hydrodynamic stresses produced by the particles also affects the aspect ratio and can result in active turbulence. Our results, which agree well with multi-phase field simulations of deformable isotropic cells, provide a bridge between models which explicitly resolve cells and continuum theories of active matter.