Eur. Phys. J. E (2018) 41: 128
https://doi.org/10.1140/epje/i2018-11739-y

Regular Article

Active dumbbells: Dynamics and morphology in the coexisting region

¹ Dipartimento di Fisica, Università degli Studi di Bari and INFN, Sezione di Bari, via Amendola 173, I-70126, Bari, Italy
² Sorbonne Université, Laboratoire de Physique Théorique et Hautes Energies, CNRS UMR 7589, 4 Place Jussieu, 75252, Paris Cedex 05, France
³ SISSA - Scuola Internazionale Superiore di Studi Avanzati, Via Bonomea 265, 34136, Trieste, Italy
⁴ Institute for Computational Molecular Science, College of Science and Technology, Temple University, 19122, Philadelphia, PA, USA

^* e-mail: antonio.suma@gmail.com

Received: 30 April 2018
Accepted: 5 October 2018
Published online: 25 October 2018

Abstract

With the help of molecular dynamics simulations we study an ensemble of active dumbbells in purely repulsive interaction. We derive the phase diagram in the density-activity plane and we characterise the various phases with liquid, hexatic and solid character. The analysis of the structural and dynamical properties, such as enstrophy, mean-square displacement, polarisation, and correlation functions, shows the continuous character of liquid and hexatic phases in the coexisting region when the activity is increased starting from the passive limit.