Non-equilibrium phase transitions in hybrid Voronoi models of cell colonies

Eukaryotic cells are characterized by a stiff nucleus whose role in governing the collective behavior of cell aggregates is often underestimated. However, increasing experimental evidence links nuclear mechanics to phenotypic transitions, such as the epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition (EMT). In this work, we explore the effect of short-range repulsive forces on the non-equilibrium dynamics of the self-propelled Voronoi model. We demonstrate that the competition between steric repulsion (representing nuclear/cellular compressibility) and vertex interactions (mimicking cell-cell adhesion and cytoskeleton organization) generates a variety of non-equilibrium phase transitions, including motility-induced phase separation (MIPS), mesenchymal-like phases and disordered dense configurations. Notably, we found that tuning the effective size or compressibility of the nucleus provides an additional pathway to cross phase boundaries, consistent with experimental observations.