Synthetic paracrine signaling of colloids drives self-assembly limit cycles

Abstract

Developing synthetic materials that exhibit life-like behavior, such as internally driven cycles, remains a central challenge in active matter. Here, we introduce a minimal colloidal model of chemical signaling in which particles produce diffusing signaling molecules that selectively promote or inhibit attractive interactions among neighboring particles. This bio-inspired, paracrine-like signaling mechanism generates context- and history-dependent many-body interactions that break time-reversal symmetry and drive the system far from equilibrium, leading to the spontaneous emergence of autonomous, internally sustained limit cycles in the composition of particle clusters. Using computer simulations, we map the resulting nonequilibrium phase behavior and identify distinct dynamical regimes controlled by the rates of signal production and degradation, together with the diffusion range of the signaling molecules. Among these, we find a robust oscillatory state in which particle clusters autonomously assemble in a cyclic fashion, driven entirely by internal feedback loops. Our results establish paracrine-signaling colloids as a minimal, physically realizable platform for programmable nonequilibrium materials with life-like functionality and provide a general route toward synthetic active matter with self-regulated collective dynamics.