Competition between lanes and transient jammed clusters in driven binary mixtures.

ABSTRACT

We consider mixtures of oppositely driven particles, showing that their nonequilibrium steady states form lanes parallel to the drive, which coexist with transient jammed clusters where particles are temporarily immobilized. We analyze the interplay between these two types of nonequilibrium pattern formation, including their implications for macroscopic demixing perpendicular to the drive. Finite-size scaling analysis indicates that there is no critical driving force associated with demixing, which appears as a crossover in finite systems. We attribute this effect to the disruption of long-ranged order by the transient jammed clusters.