Effect of speed fluctuations on the collective dynamics of active disks

Abstract: Numerical simulations are performed on the collective dynamics of active disks, whose self-propulsion speed ($U$) varies in time, and whose orientation evolves according to rotational Brownian motion. Two protocols for the evolution of speed are considered: (i) a deterministic one involving a periodic change in $U$ at a frequency $\omega$; and (ii) a stochastic one in which the speeds are drawn from a power-law distribution at time-intervals governed by a Poissonian process of rate $\beta$. In the first case, an increase in $\omega$ causes the disks to go from a clustered state to a homogeneous one through an apparent phase-transition, provided that the direction of self-propulsion is allowed to reverse. Similarly, in the second case, for a fixed value of $\beta$, the extent of cluster-breakup is larger when reversals in the self-propulsion direction are permitted. Motility-induced phase separation of the disks may therefore be avoided in active matter suspensions in which the constituents are allowed to reverse their self-propulsion direction, immaterial of the precise temporal nature of the reversal (deterministic or stochastic). Equally, our results demonstrate that phase separation could occur even in the absence of a time-averaged motility of an individual active agent, provided that the rate of direction reversals is smaller than the orientational diffusion rate.