No Arabic abstract
We investigate the persistence probability of a Brownian particle in a harmonic potential, which decays to zero at long times -- leading to an unbounded motion of the Brownian particle. We consider two functional forms for the decay of the confinement, an exponential and an algebraic decay. Analytical calculations and numerical simulations show, that for the case of the exponential relaxation, the dynamics of Brownian particle at short and long times are independent of the parameters of the relaxation. On the contrary, for the algebraic decay of the confinement, the dynamics at long times is determined by the exponent of the decay. Finally, using the two-time correlation function for the position of the Brownian particle, we construct the persistence probability for the Brownian walker in such a scenario.
A model of an autonomous isothermal Brownian motor with an internal propulsion mechanism is considered. The motor is a Brownian particle which is semi-transparent for molecules of surrounding ideal gas. Molecular passage through the particle is controlled by a potential similar to that in the transition rate theory, i.e. characterized by two stationary states with a finite energy difference separated by a potential barrier. The internal potential drop maintains the diode-like asymmetry of molecular fluxes through the particle, which results in the particles stationary drift.
At fast timescales, the self-similarity of random Brownian motion is expected to break down and be replaced by ballistic motion. So far, an experimental verification of this prediction has been out of reach due to a lack of instrumentation fast and precise enough to capture this motion. With a newly developed detector, we have been able to observe the Brownian motion of a single particle in an optical trap with 75 MHz bandwidth and sub-{AA}ngstrom spatial precision. We report the first measurements of ballistic Brownian motion as well as the first determination of the velocity autocorrelation function of a Brownian particle. The data are in excellent agreement with theoretical predictions taking into account the inertia of the particle and the surrounding fluid as well as hydrodynamic memory effects.
As a result of nonequilibrium forces, purely repulsive self-propelled particles undergo macrophase separation between a dense and a dilute phase. We present a thorough study of the ordering kinetics of such motility-induced phase separation (MIPS) in active Brownian particles in two dimensions, and we show that it is generically accompanied by microphase separation. The growth of the dense phase follows a law akin to the one of liquid-gas phase separation. However, it is made of a mosaic of hexatic microdomains whose size does not coarsen indefinitely, leaving behind a network of extended topological defects from which microscopic dilute bubbles arise. The characteristic length of these finite-size structures increases with activity, independently of the choice of initial conditions.
We investigate various possible definitions of an effective temperature for a particularly simple nonequilibrium stationary system, namely a heated Brownian particle suspended in a fluid. The effective temperature based on the fluctuation dissipation ratio depends on the time scale under consideration, so that a simple Langevin description of the heated particle is impossible. The short and long time limits of this effective temperature are shown to be consistent with the temperatures estimated from the kinetic energy and Einstein relation, respectively. The fluctuation theorem provides still another definition of the temperature, which is shown to coincide with the short time value of the fluctuation dissipation ratio.
We study analytically the single-trajectory spectral density (STSD) of an active Brownian motion as exhibited, for example, by the dynamics of a chemically-active Janus colloid. We evaluate the standardly-defined spectral density, i.e. the STSD averaged over a statistical ensemble of trajectories in the limit of an infinitely long observation time $T$, and also go beyond the standard analysis by considering the coefficient of variation $gamma$ of the distribution of the STSD. Moreover, we analyse the finite-$T$ behaviour of the STSD and $gamma$, determine the cross-correlations between spatial components of the STSD, and address the effects of translational diffusion on the functional forms of spectral densities. The exact expressions that we obtain unveil many distinctive features of active Brownian motion compared to its passive counterpart, which allow to distinguish between these two classes based solely on the spectral content of individual trajectories.