Collective states of active particles with elastic dipolar interactions

Abstract

Many types of mammalian cells exert active contractile forces and mechanically deform their elastic substrate, to accomplish biological functions such as cell migration. These substrate deformations provide a mechanism by which cells can sense other cells, leading to long range mechanical intercell interactions and possible self organization. Here, we treat cells as noisy motile particles that exert contractile dipolar stresses on elastic substrates as they move. By combining this minimal model for the motility of individual cells with a linear elastic model that accounts for substrate mediated cell cell interactions, we examine emergent collective states that result from the interplay of cell motility and long range elastic dipolar interactions. In particular, we show that particles self assemble into flexible, motile chains which can cluster to form diverse larger scale compact structures with polar order. By computing key structural and dynamical metrics, we distinguish between the collective states at weak and strong elastic interactions, as well as at low and high motility. We also show how these states are affected by confinement, an important characteristic of the complex mechanical microenvironment inhabited by cells. Our model predictions are generally applicable to active matter with dipolar interactions ranging from biological cells to synthetic colloids endowed with electric or magnetic dipole moments.