Abstract

We show that confining extensile nematics in three-dimensional (3D) channels leads to the emergence of two self-organized flow states with nonzero helicity. The first is a pair of braided antiparallel streams???this double helix occurs when the activity is moderate, anchoring negligible, and reduced temperature high. The second consists of axially aligned counter-rotating vortices???this grinder train arises between spontaneous axial streaming and the vortex lattice. These two unanticipated helical flow states illustrate the potential of active fluids to break symmetries and form complex but organized spatiotemporal structures in 3D fluidic devices.