Simulation Insights into Self-Propelling Chiral Auto-Chemotactic Particles

Chemotaxis and auto-chemotaxis are ubiquitous in living systems. On the one hand, these mechanisms are important in communications and interactions among constituents (e.g., bacteria) in many active matter systems, the dynamics of which are strongly coupled with its environment in terms of chemical fields or nutrient landscapes. On the other hand, hydrodynamic flows emerged in active matter systems may substantially modify the chemical field and further affect the locomotion dynamics of active particles. In this work, we couple active Brownian dynamics simulations with an advection-diffusion equation to examine the dynamics of self-propelling chiral particles, which exhibit auto-chemotaxis to its own established chemical field. Our two-dimensional simulations can reproduce trajectories characteristic of chiral auto-chemotactic droplets in experiments. We further quantitatively elucidate how the interplay of activity, chirality, and chemical force dictates the geometry of the particle trajectories. Our work leads to a more quantitative understanding of living active matter.