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Updated: Jul 15, 2025

Controlling Flow Speeds of Microtubule-Based 3D Active Fluids Using Temperature
Published on: November 26, 2019
Control of Active Brownian Particles: An Exact Solution
Marco Baldovin1,2, David Guéry-Odelin3, Emmanuel Trizac1,4
1Université Paris-Saclay, CNRS, LPTMS, 91405, Orsay, France.
Abstract:
Control of stochastic systems is a challenging open problem in statistical physics, with a wealth of potential applications from biology to granulates. Unlike most cases investigated so far, we aim here at controlling a genuinely out-of-equilibrium system, the two dimensional active Brownian particles model in a harmonic potential, a paradigm for the study of self-propelled bacteria. We search for protocols for the driving parameters (stiffness of the potential and activity of the particles) bringing the system from an initial passivelike steady state to a final activelike one, within a chosen time interval. The exact analytical results found for this prototypical model of self-propelled particles brings control techniques to a wider class of out-of-equilibrium systems.
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