Pattern formation in particle systems driven by color field

The structural evolution of systems with two kinds of particles driven in opposite directions, i.e., driven by a color field, is investigated by molecular dynamics simulations. Gaussian thermostat, a common treatment to restrict the thermal velocity of the particles in the systems, has been used so as to account for the dissipation of heat and allow the system to reach a steady state. It has been found that with the increase of the strength of driving force (F), the system undergoes an obvious structural transition from an initially random mixing state to a state characterized by separate lanes and in each lane only one kind of particles exists. The analysis shows that the reason for the formation of lane structure is not only the increase of F but also the variation of particle friction coefficient. While using Gaussian thermostat the particle friction coefficient becomes a function of F. Increasing F leads to high particle friction coefficient and inevitably results in lane formation for strong enough driving force. When lifting the effect of F on friction coefficient and choosing a constant friction coefficient, our results show that for a given F there always exists a critical value of friction coefficient higher than which the system will develop into lane structure.