| Issue |
EPJ Web Conf.
Volume 340, 2025
Powders & Grains 2025 – 10th International Conference on Micromechanics on Granular Media
|
|
|---|---|---|
| Article Number | 12003 | |
| Number of page(s) | 4 | |
| Section | Emerging Topics: Additive Manufacturing & Meta Materials, Microgravity, Tribo-Charging, Active Particles, and Artificial Intelligence & Machine Learning | |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1051/epjconf/202534012003 | |
| Published online | 01 December 2025 | |
https://doi.org/10.1051/epjconf/202534012003
Collective behavior of macroscopic photoactive particles: An experimental study
1 Departamento de Física y Matemática Aplicada, Facultad de Ciencias, Universidad de Navarra, E-31080 Pamplona, Spain
2 Institut für Theoretische Physik II: Weiche Materie, Heinrich-Heine-Universität Düsseldorf, D-40225 Düsseldorf, Germany
* e-mail: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Published online: 1 December 2025
Abstract
We experimentally investigate the collective behavior of an active granular system in which the activity of the macroscopic self-propelled agents is controlled by light intensity. This allows us to test the system response to the agents excitation by simply changing the illumination intensity. We explore a broad range of excitation levels and population sizes, discovering the existence of a transition from stable cluster development at low excitation intensities and large population sizes to unstable clustering when the light intensity is high and the population is small. Through an extensive analysis of cluster dynamics, we have constructed a phase diagram that illustrates this transition, providing insights into the mechanisms governing collective behavior in active granular matter.
© The Authors, published by EDP Sciences, 2025
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