Fully developed active turbulence defined through a non-equilibrium phase transition - Nature Physics

Nature Physics researchers report a mathematical link between two kinds of “critical” behavior in active nematohydrodynamics, describing fully developed active turbulence through a non-equilibrium phase transition. The work highlights a striking coincidence between the critical percolation of nodal lines and the rigidity percolation of vortex centres, even though these correspond to distinct universality classes in equilibrium systems. The authors also argue that explicit active stresses may not be required: breaking detailed balance alone can produce conformally invariant states. Using SLE theory, with κ controlling fractal geometry, they identify universality classes via left-passage probability and driving-function methods. The paper outlines how nodal lines are extracted from vorticity fields.