Fig. 3: Dependence of yielding behaviour on persistence time.
From: Yielding behaviour of active particles in bulk and in confinement
a,b, The yielding transition shifts to smaller force magnitudes f, as the persistence time increases from τp = τ to 100τ–200τ and thereafter to larger f as the persistence time increases further, for the well-annealed (a) and poorly annealed (b) initial configurations. The mechanical annealing in the latter case diminishes with an increase in the persistence time. Data are obtained by averaging over eight independent trajectories. The error bars in a and b denote the standard deviations at the respective f. c, Divergence of the time to reach the steady state at different persistence times. The dashed lines are best fits with the exponent fixed based on the data for τp = 2.31 × 102τ. d, Stress as a function of active force, with a shift in the value of force (f) at which deviation from linearity first occurs. The value of f corresponding to the peak stress is indicated by a vertical magenta line for τp = 2.31 × 102τ and a vertical orange line for τp = 1.01 × 104τ. e, Yielding transition force, measured from the departure of the potential energy from the initial preparation value in a and from the extrapolated divergence of the timescale to the steady state in c, shown as a function of τp. f, Schematic of the role of persistence time in the intermediate-to-high-persistence-time regime. Intermediate persistence times facilitate the rapid exploration of routes to escape the cages constituted by their nearest neighbours, leading to yielding at small active driving magnitudes. As the persistence time increases, this capacity for exploration decreases and particles instead ‘break through’ their cages, which requires large-magnitude active forces.
