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Abstract:
Chiral symmetry breaking is ubiquitous in biological systems, from DNA to bacterial suspensions. A key unresolved problem is how chiral structures may spontaneously emerge from achiral interactions. We study a
simple model of active swimmers in three dimensions that effectively incorporates hydrodynamic interactions.
We perform large-scale molecular dynamics simulations (up to 106 particles) and find long-lived metastable
collective states that exhibit chiral organization although the interactions are achiral. We elucidate under which
conditions these chiral states will emerge and grow to large scales. To explore the complex phase space available
to the system, we perform nonequilibrium quenches on a one-dimensional Lebwohl-Lasher model with periodic
boundary conditions to study the likelihood of formation of chiral structures.
