Dataset: Guided accumulation of active particles by topological design of a second-order skin effect

Experimental data files used in the manuscript "Guided accumulation of active particles by topological design of a second-order skin effect". Collective guidance of out-of-equilibrium systems without using external fields is a challenge of paramount importance in active matter, ranging from bacterial colonies to swarms of self-propelled particles.<br> Designing strategies to guide active matter and exploiting enhanced diffusion associated to its motion will provide insights for application from sensing, drug delivery to water remediation.<br> <br> However, achieving directed motion without breaking detailed balance, for example by asymmetric topographical patterning, is challenging.<br> <br> Here we engineer a two-dimensional periodic topographical design with detailed balance in its unit cell where we observe spontaneous particle edge guidance and corner accumulation of self-propelled particles.<br> <br> This emergent behaviour is guaranteed by a second-order non-Hermitian skin effect, a topologically robust non-equilibrium phenomenon, that we use to dynamically break detailed balance.<br> <br> Our stochastic circuit model predicts, without fitting parameters, how guidance and accumulation can be controlled and enhanced by design: a device guides particles more efficiently if the topological invariant characterizing it is non-zero.<br> <br> Our work establishes a fruitful bridge between active and topological matter, and our design principles offer a blueprint to design devices that display spontaneous, robust and predictable guided motion and accumulation, guaranteed by out-of-equilibrium topology.