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Updated: Jun 4, 2025

Controlling Flow Speeds of Microtubule-Based 3D Active Fluids Using Temperature
Published on: November 26, 2019
Asymmetric limit cycles within Lorenz chaos induce anomalous mobility for a memory-driven active particle
Rahil N Valani1, Bruno S Dandogbessi2
1Rudolf Peierls Centre for Theoretical Physics, Parks Road, <a href="https://ror.org/052gg0110">University of Oxford</a>, OX1 3PU, United Kingdom.
Abstract:
On applying a small bias force, nonequilibrium systems may respond in paradoxical ways such as with giant negative mobility (GNM)-a large net drift opposite to the applied bias, or giant positive mobility (GPM)-an anomalously large drift in the same direction as the applied bias. Such behaviors have been extensively studied in idealized models of externally driven passive inertial particles. Here, we consider a minimal model of a memory-driven active particle inspired from experiments with walking and superwalking droplets, whose equation of motion maps to the celebrated Lorenz system. By adding a small bias force to this Lorenz model for the active particle, we uncover a dynamical mechanism for simultaneous emergence of GNM and GPM in the parameter space. Within the chaotic sea of the parameter space, a symmetric pair of coexisting asymmetric limit cycles separate and migrate under applied bias force, resulting in anomalous transport behaviors that are sensitive to the active particle's memory. Our work highlights a general dynamical mechanism for the emergence of anomalous transport behaviors for active particles described by low-dimensional nonlinear models.
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