Eur. Phys. J. E (2016) 39: 97
https://doi.org/10.1140/epje/i2016-16097-2

Regular Article

Generalized Swift-Hohenberg models for dense active suspensions

¹ Courant Institute of Mathematical Sciences, New York University, 251 Mercer Street, 10012, New York, NY, USA
² Physikalisch-Technische Bundesanstalt Braunschweig und Berlin, Abbestr. 2-12, 10587, Berlin, Germany
³ Department of Mathematics, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 77 Massachusetts Avenue, 02139-4307, Cambridge, MA, USA

^* e-mail: oza@cims.nyu.edu

Received: 20 April 2016
Accepted: 20 September 2016
Published online: 25 October 2016

Abstract

In describing the physics of living organisms, a mathematical theory that captures the generic ordering principles of intracellular and multicellular dynamics is essential for distinguishing between universal and system-specific features. Here, we compare two recently proposed nonlinear high-order continuum models for active polar and nematic suspensions, which aim to describe collective migration in dense cell assemblies and the ordering processes in ATP-driven microtubule-kinesin networks, respectively. We discuss the phase diagrams of the two models and relate their predictions to recent experiments. The satisfactory agreement with existing experimental data lends support to the hypothesis that non-equilibrium pattern formation phenomena in a wide range of active systems can be described within the same class of higher-order partial differential equations.