Current reversal in polar flock at order-disorder interface

Abstract

We studied a system of polar self-propelled particles (SPPs) on a thin rectangular channel designed into three regions of order-disorder-order. The division of the three regions is made on the basis of the noise SPPs experience in the respective regions. The noise in the two wide regions is chosen lower than the critical noise of order-disorder transition and noise in the middle region or interface is higher than the critical noise. This makes the geometry of the system analogous to the Josephson junction (JJ) in solid-state physics. Keeping all other parameters fixed, we study the properties of the moving SPPs in the bulk as well as along the interface for different widths of the junction. On increasing interface width, the system shows an order-to-disorder transition from coherent moving SPPs in the whole system to the interrupted current for large interface width. Surprisingly, inside the interface, we observed the current reversal for intermediate widths of the interface. Such current reversal is due to the strong randomness present inside the interface, which makes the wall of the interface reflecting. Hence, our study gives new interesting collective properties of SPPs at the interface which can be useful to design switching devices using active agents. © 2023 American Physical Society.