Vibrationally Driven Motion of Active Granular Particles

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The phase behavior of active matter, such as swimming bacteria, flocks of animals or even humans currently attracts huge interest in soft-matter physics. Many experimental and numerical studies also focus on the behavior of active colloidal particles, which are typically driven by a local chemical gradient. In these systems, in particular when the active particles have a complex shape, a huge variety of novel features is observed.In this research project large systems of arbitrarily shaped active granular particles will be studied. Our system is based on a novel design, where particles are constructed with tilted legs in such a way, that by exciting the particles by vertical vibrations, they perform a directed motion in the direction given by the leg angle or, by aligning the legs in a circle, active rotation around the circle center.We expect a variety of non-equilibrium structure and pattern formation in many-particle system, such as observed in studies of active colloids and predicted in by simulations. In particular it is a fascinating question, whether collective motion of active particles depends mostly on physical mechanisms or whether ``intelligent'' behavior of individuals is required. The role of particle shape, direction of motion, sense of rotation and polydispersity on the collective phase behavior will be investigated. This proposal covers the work program for the first 2 years of project aiming for a total duration of 6 years.