Dynamics of active rings in porous media

Active organisms living in complex environments generate localized forces along their membrane and effectively navigate through their habitat undergoing temporal shape deformations. To understand the key factors that affect the migration of these organisms, we simulate active ring polymers in two-dimensional disordered porous media. The dynamics of three different systems of active ring polymers such as flexible, inextensible, and semiflexible have been simulated. We find that the activity of individual beads differently affects the dynamical and conformal properties of the ring polymer depending on the pore size of the media, flexibility, and stiffness of the polymer. Flexible and inextensible ring polymers migrate smoothly through the random porous media by expanding and shrinking inside pore space. Whereas semiflexible ring polymers exhibit transient trapping inside the pores. The migration of the active rings in such a complex environment is affected by activity and the architecture of the porous media. We discover that the flexible rings swell, while the inextensible and semiflexible rings shrink in porous media with an increase in activity. Our findings shed light on how the shape deforming organisms navigates through the disordered, porous environments and also how the media affect their dynamics and morphology.