Eur. Phys. J. Special Topics 225, 651-662 (2016)
https://doi.org/10.1140/epjst/e2015-50324-3

Review

Active turbulence in active nematics

¹ Department of Chemical Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology Madras, Chennai 600036, India
² The Rudolf Peierls Centre for Theoretical Physics, 1 Keble Road, Oxford OX1 3NP, UK

^a e-mail: julia.yeomans@physics.ox.ac.uk

Received: 13 December 2015
Revised: 3 May 2016
Published online: 15 July 2016

Abstract

Dense, active systems show active turbulence, a state characterised by flow fields that are chaotic, with continually changing velocity jets and swirls. Here we review our current understanding of active turbulence. The development is primarily based on the theory and simulations of active liquid crystals, but with accompanying summaries of related literature.