Dissipative Solitons and Metastable States in a Chain of Active Particles

Abstract

The dynamics of a chain of interacting active particles of Rayleigh-type is studied. Particles are interconnected via Morse potential forces. The steady-state modes (attractors) of the chain with periodic boundary conditions look like cnoidal waves with a uniform distribution of the particles’ density maxima along the chain. However, if the system starts from random initial conditions, a metastable state with nonuniform distribution of density maxima is formed. Characteristics of metastable states, excitation probability of different modes and their lifetimes are studied by numerical simulation.