2014/03/06 by Bao-quan Ai, Jianchun Wu, Jian-chun Wu · 43 citations
Physics and Astronomy · #Advanced Thermodynamics and Statistical Mechanics #Classical mechanics #Diffusion #Ellipsoid #Mechanics #Micro and Nano Robotics #Optics #Particle (ecology) #Physics #Ratchet #Ratchet effect #Rectification #Rotational diffusion #Thermodynamics #Torque #Work (physics) #cond-mat.soft #stochastic dynamics and bifurcation
paper · pdf · doi:10.1063/1.4867283
published in The Journal of Chemical Physics 140(9), 094103 (American Institute of Physics) · 7pages, 8 figures
openalex publication_date 2014/03/06 · arxiv created 2015/05/10 · arxiv updated 2015/05/12 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/05
Rectified transport of active ellipsoidal particles is numerically investigated in a two-dimensional asymmetric potential. The out-of-equilibrium condition for the active particle is an intrinsic property, which can break thermodynamical equilibrium and induce the directed transport. It is found that the perfect sphere particle can facilitate the rectification, while the needlelike particle destroys the directed transport. There exist optimized values of the parameters (the self-propelled velocity, the torque acting on the body) at which the average velocity takes its maximal value. For the ellipsoidal particle with not large asymmetric parameter, the average velocity decreases with increasing the rotational diffusion rate, while for the needlelike particle (very large asymmetric parameter), the average velocity is a peaked function of the rotational diffusion rate. By introducing a finite load, particles with different shapes (or different self-propelled velocities) will move to the opposite directions, which is able to separate particles of different shapes (or different self-propelled velocities).