Velocity alignment promotes motility-induced phase separation

Abstract

We study the phase behavior of polar active Brownian particles moving in twospatial dimensions and interacting through volume exclusion and velocity alignment. We combine particle-based simulations of the microscopic model with a simple mean-field kinetic model to understand the impact of velocity alignment on the motility-induced phase separation of selfpropelled disks. We show that, as the alignment strength is increased, approaching the onset of collective motion from below, orientational correlations grow, rendering the diffusive reorientation dynamics slower. As a consequence, the tendency of particles to aggregate into isotropic clusters is enhanced, favoring the complete de-mixing of the system into a low and high-density phase.