Direct evaluation of rare events in active matter from variational path sampling

Kavli Affiliate: David T. Limmer

| First 5 Authors: Avishek Das, Benjamin Kuznets-Speck, David T. Limmer, ,

| Summary:

Active matter represents a broad class of systems that evolve far from
equilibrium due to the local injection of energy. Like their passive analogues,
transformations between distinct metastable states in active matter proceed
through rare fluctuations, however their detailed balance violating dynamics
renders these events difficult to study. Here, we present a simulation method
for evaluating the rate and mechanism of rare events in generic nonequilibrium
systems and apply it to study the conformational changes of a passive solute in
an active fluid. The method employs a variational optimization of a control
force that renders the rare event a typical one, supplying an exact estimate of
its rate as a ratio of path partition functions. Using this method we find that
increasing activity in the active bath can enhance the rate of conformational
switching of the passive solute in a manner consistent with recent bounds from
stochastic thermodynamics.

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