Nonequilibrium dynamical structure factor of a dilute suspension of active particles in a viscoelastic fluid.

In this work we investigate the dynamics of the number-density fluctuations of a dilute suspension of active particles in a linear viscoelastic fluid. We propose a model for the frequency-dependent diffusion coefficient of the active particles which captures the effect of rotational diffusion on the persistence of their self-propelled motion and the viscoelasticity of the medium. Using fluctuating hydrodynamics, the linearized equations for the active suspension are derived, from which we calculate its dynamic structure factor and the corresponding intermediate scattering function. For a Maxwell-type rheological model, we find an intricate dependence of these functions on the parameters that characterize the viscoelasticity of the solvent and the activity of the particles, which can significantly deviate from those of an inert suspension of passive particles and of an active suspension in a Newtonian solvent. In particular, in some regions of the parameter space we uncover the emergence of oscillations in the intermediate scattering function at certain wave numbers which represent the hallmark of the nonequilibrium particle activity in the dynamical structure of the suspension and also encode the viscoelastic properties of the medium.

Fractional Time Fluctuations in Viscoelasticity: A Comparative Study of Correlations and Elastic Moduli.

We calculate the transverse velocity fluctuations correlation function of a linear and homogeneous viscoelastic liquid by using a generalized Langevin equation (GLE) approach. We consider a long-ranged (power-law) viscoelastic memory and a noise with a long-range (power-law) auto-correlation. We first evaluate the transverse velocity fluctuations correlation function for conventional time derivatives C ^ N F ( k → , t ) and then introduce time fractional derivatives in their equations of motion and calculate the corresponding fractional correlation function. We find that the magnitude of the fractional correlation C ^ F ( k → , t ) is always lower than the non-fractional one and decays more rapidly. The relationship between the fractional loss modulus G F ″ ( ω ) and C ^ F ( k → , t ) is also calculated analytically. The difference between the values of G ″ ( ω ) for two specific viscoelastic fluids is quantified. Our model calculation shows that the fractional effects on this measurable quantity may be three times as large as compared with its non-fractional value. The fact that the dynamic shear modulus is related to the light scattering spectrum suggests that the measurement of this property might be used as a suitable test to assess the effects of temporal fractional derivatives on a measurable property. Finally, we summarize the main results of our approach and emphasize that the eventual validity of our model calculations can only come from experimentation.