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Updated: Jan 11, 2026

Forming, Confining, and Observing Microtubule-Based Active Nematics
Published on: January 13, 2023
Passive objects in a chiral active bath: From microscopic to macroscopic
Cory Hargus1, Federico Ghimenti1,2, Julien Tailleur1,3
1Laboratoire Matière et Systèmes Complexes, Université Paris Cité and UMR No. 7057, CNRS, 75013 Paris, France.
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We present a detailed derivation of the Langevin dynamics obeyed by a massive rigid body immersed in a chiral active bath. We show how the antisymmetric nature of the noise leads to an unusual relationship between the Langevin equation describing stochastic trajectories and the Fokker-Planck equation governing the time evolution of the probability density. The chirality of the bath endows the object dynamics with odd diffusivity, odd mobility, and rotational ratchet effects that depend on the object symmetries. For rotationally symmetric objects, we show that a hidden time-reversal symmetry leads to separate effective equilibrium descriptions for the translational and rotational degrees of freedom. Finally, starting from the bath dynamics, we construct a multipole expansion to quadrupolar order that allows predicting the far-field current and density modulation induced by the object on the bath.
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