Tuning nonequilibrium colloidal structure in external fields by density-dependent state switching.

Biological cells have the ability to switch internal states depending on the density of other cells in their local environment, referred to as "quorum sensing." The latter can be utilized to control collective structuring, such as in biofilm formation. In this work, we study a simple quorum sensing model of ideal (noninteracting) colloids with a switchable internal degree of freedom in the presence of external potentials.