Complete and partial wetting in active liquids

Dry and wet layers on a wall are the surface manifestation of equilibrium liquid-vapour phase transitions. Active liquids are disordered nonequilibrium systems that dissipate energy locally, able to produce phase separation in the absence of attractive interactions. We connect the emergent motility-induced separation of model active liquids with effective many-body cohesive interactions, focusing on the paradigmatic case of active Brownian particles [1]. Building on this link, we show how tuneable repulsive barriers allow us to explore various wetting behaviours in two and three-dimensional active matter, with implications on the viable strategies to confine active fluids [2].

1 F. Turci and N.B. Wilding, Phys. Rev. Lett., 126, 038002 (2021) 2 F. Turci and N.B. Wilding, Phys. Rev. Lett., 127, 238002 (2021)