Phase coexistence implications of violating Newton's third law

Yu-Jen Chiu; Ahmad K Omar

doi:10.1063/5.0146822

Phase coexistence implications of violating Newton's third law

J Chem Phys. 2023 Apr 28;158(16):164903. doi: 10.1063/5.0146822.

Authors

Yu-Jen Chiu¹, Ahmad K Omar^{1

2}

Affiliations

¹ Department of Materials Science and Engineering, University of California, Berkeley, California 94720, USA.
² Materials Sciences Division, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, California 94720, USA.

PMID: 37102446
DOI: 10.1063/5.0146822

Abstract

Newton's third law, action = reaction, is a foundational statement of classical mechanics. However, in natural and living systems, this law appears to be routinely violated for constituents interacting in a nonequilibrium environment. Here, we use computer simulations to explore the macroscopic phase behavior implications of breaking microscopic interaction reciprocity for a simple model system. We consider a binary mixture of attractive particles and introduce a parameter that is a continuous measure of the degree to which interaction reciprocity is broken. In the reciprocal limit, the species are indistinguishable, and the system phase separates into domains with distinct densities and identical compositions. Increasing nonreciprocity is found to drive the system to explore a rich assortment of phases, including phases with strong composition asymmetries and three-phase coexistence. Many of the states induced by these forces, including traveling crystals and liquids, have no equilibrium analogs. By mapping the complete phase diagram for this model system and characterizing these unique phases, our findings offer a concrete path forward toward understanding how nonreciprocity shapes the structures found in living systems and how this might be leveraged in the design of synthetic materials.