Arrested Phase Separation in C. elegans: Two simulations of one pattern

When many C. elegans worms share a plate, they gather into groups. Instead of merging into one big cluster, the groups stop growing and settle into a pattern of spots of similar size. This is called arrested phase separation, and I study how it happens with two simulations of the same system.

The first is a 3D model in COMSOL that treats the worms and the oxygen around them as continuous fields. Starting from a nearly uniform state, the worms break up into clusters that stop growing and arrange themselves into a regular pattern of spots.

The second is a particle simulation in which every worm is an individual that moves, uses up the oxygen around it and responds to it. I wrote it in Python with JAX so it runs on a GPU. The same clustering appears here from the behaviour of individual worms, which lets me check that the pattern in the continuum model really follows from what single worms do.

I also record worm plates in the lab. The video below is a timelapse of one of the plates.