Arrested coarsening in active colloidal suspensions driven by nonreciprocal electrohydrodynamic interactions

Abstract

Nonreciprocal interactions have recently attracted growing interest in nonequilibrium physics. In particular, breaking action-reaction symmetry has been proposed as a mechanism for collective motion, yet controlled experimental realizations remain scarce. Here we show that bidisperse colloidal suspensions driven by AC electric fields exhibit persistent active clusters sustained by nonreciprocal electrohydrodynamic interactions. Size-asymmetric particle pairs spontaneously self-propel due to imbalanced electrohydrodynamic attraction, producing clusters that continuously fragment and reorganize rather than coarsening into static aggregates as in monodisperse systems. Agent-based simulations reproduce the observed dynamics and identify nonreciprocal pair propulsion as the minimal ingredient for the persistent cluster dynamics. These results demonstrate that action-reaction symmetry breaking in electrohydrodynamic interactions can arrest coarsening and sustain dynamically reconfigurable collective states in dense colloidal suspensions.