We consider the nonequilibrium dynamics of a charged active Brownian particle in the presence of a space dependent magnetic field. It has recently been shown that the Lorentz force induces a particle flux perpendicular to density gradients, thus preventing a diffusive description of the dynamics. Whereas a passive system will eventually relax to an equilibrium state, unaffected by the magnetic field, an active system subject to a spatially varying Lorentz force settles into a nonequilibrium steady state characterized by an inhomogeneous density and divergence-free bulk fluxes. A macroscopic flux of charged active particles is induced by the gradient of the magnetic field only and does not require additional symmetric breaking such as density or potential gradients. This stands in marked contrast to similar phenomena in condensed matter such as the classical Hall effect. In a confined geometry we observe circulating fluxes, which can be reversed by inverting the direction of the magnetic field. Our theoretical approach, based on coarse-graining of the Fokker-Planck equation, yields analytical results for the density, fluxes, and polarization in the steady state, all of which are validated by direct computer simulation. We demonstrate that passive tracer particles can be used to measure the essential effects of the Lorentz force on the active particle bath, and we discuss under which conditions the effects of the flux could be observed experimentally.arXiv:1908.02577v1 [cond-mat.soft]

We study dynamical properties of confined, self-propelled Brownian particles in an inhomogeneous activity profile. Using Brownian dynamics simulations, we calculate the probability to reach a fixed target and the mean first passage time to the target of an active particle. We show that both these quantities are strongly influenced by the inhomogeneous activity. When the activity is distributed such that high-activity zone is located between the target and the starting location, the target finding probability is increased and the passage time is decreased in comparison to a uniformly active system. Moreover, for a continuously distributed profile, the activity gradient results in a drift of active particle up the gradient bearing resemblance to chemotaxis. Integrating out the orientational degrees of freedom, we derive an approximate Fokker-Planck equation and show that the theoretical predictions are in very good agreement with the Brownian dynamics simulations.

We study the stochastic motion of a particle subject to spatially varying Lorentz force in the smallmass limit. The limiting procedure yields an additional drift term in the overdamped equation that cannot be obtained by simply setting mass to zero in the velocity Langevin equation. We show that whereas the overdamped equation of motion accurately captures the position statistics of the particle, it leads to unphysical fluxes in the system that persist in the long time limit; an anomalous result inconsistent with thermal equilibrium. These fluxes are calculated analytically from the overdamped equation of motion and found to be in quantitative agreement with Brownian dynamics simulations. Our study suggests that the overdamped approximation, though perfectly suited for position statistics, can yield unphysical values for velocity-dependent variables such as flux and entropy production. arXiv:1812.01298v2 [cond-mat.soft]

The Fokker-Planck equation provides complete statistical description of a particle undergoing random motion in a solvent. In the presence of Lorentz force due to an external magnetic field, the Fokker-Planck equation picks up a tensorial coefficient, which reflects the anisotropy of the particle's motion. This tensor, however, can not be interpreted as a diffusion tensor; there are antisymmetric terms which give rise to fluxes perpendicular to the density gradients. Here, we show that for an inhomogeneous magnetic field these nondiffusive fluxes have finite divergence and therefore affect the density evolution of the system. Only in the special cases of a uniform magnetic field or carefully chosen initial condition with the same symmetry as the magnetic field can these fluxes be ignored in the density evolution.

We investigate the simple one-dimensional driven model, the totally asymmetric exclusion process, coupled to mutually interactive Langmuir kinetics. This model is motivated by recent studies on clustering of motor proteins on microtubules. In the proposed model, the attachment and detachment rates of a particle are modified depending upon the occupancy of neighboring sites. We first obtain continuum mean-field equations and in certain limiting cases obtain analytic solutions. We show how mutual interactions increase (decrease) the effects of boundaries on the phase behavior of the model. We perform Monte Carlo simulations and demonstrate that our analytical approximations are in good agreement with the numerics over a wide range of model parameters. We present phase diagrams over a selective range of parameters.