Confinement-Induced Pumping of Chiral Active Fluids

Abstract

Chiral active fluids, composed of continuously rotating active constituents, exhibit a wealth of nonequilibrium phenomena arising from the interplay of activity, hydrodynamic interactions, and broken mirror symmetry. While these systems naturally generate circulating flows and active turbulence, converting their microscopic rotational motion into directed macroscopic transport remains an open challenge. By means of mesoscale hydrodynamic simulations, here we show that channels with an intrinsic asymmetry result in the spontaneous formation of a persistent net flux in the absence of externally imposed pressure gradients or body forces. Our results can be extrapolated to various geometric confinement strategies providing efficient and versatile strategies for transforming chiral activity into autonomous fluid transport, such that they can be utilized as a promising platform for self-powered microfluidic pumping.