Symmetry breaking in clogging for oppositely driven particles.
basic_science · Level V
Where this comes from
- Record sourced from PubMed, PMID 27967033.
- No licence information is recorded for this record.
- Because redistribution is not established, this page shows the abstract only. Follow the links below for the full text.
Abstract
The clogging behavior of a symmetric binary mixture of colloidal particles that are driven in opposite directions through constrictions is explored by Brownian dynamics simulations and theory. A dynamical state with a spontaneously broken symmetry occurs where one species is flowing and the other is blocked for a long time, which can be tailored by the size of the constrictions. Moreover, we find self-organized oscillations in clogging and unclogging of the two species. Apart from statistical physics, our results are of relevance for fields like biology, chemistry, and crowd management, where ions, microparticles, pedestrians, or other particles are driven in opposite directions through constrictions.