From motility-induced phase-separation to glassiness in dense active matter

Emergent behavior of dense living materials shows coexistence of both equilibrium and non-equilibrium features, such as glassy states and motility-induced phase separation. Here, the authors study transition between these two phases in a model of dense, disordered, soft active materials and find that the mechanism leading to fluidization from the glassy phase do not have an equilibrium counterpart.