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Brownian information engines can extract work from thermal fluctuations by utilizing information. To date, the studies on Brownian information engines consider the system in a thermal bath; however, many processes in nature occur in a nonequilibrium setting, such as the suspensions of self-propelled microorganisms or cellular environments called an active bath. Here, we introduce an archetypal model for a Maxwell-demon type cyclic Brownian information engine operating in a Gaussian correlated active bath capable of extracting more work than its thermal counterpart. We obtain a general integral fluctuation theorem for the active engine that includes additional mutual information gained from the active bath with a unique effective temperature. This effective description modifies the generalized second law and provides a new upper bound for the extracted work. Unlike the passive information engine operating in a thermal bath, the active information engine extracts colossal power that peaks at the finite cycle period. Our study provides fundamental insights into the design and functioning of synthetic and biological submicrometer motors in active baths under measurement and feedback control.
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http://dx.doi.org/10.1021/acs.jpclett.2c01736 | DOI Listing |
NPJ Microgravity
September 2025
Department of Mechanical Engineering, UC Santa Barbara, Santa Barbara, CA, USA.
Microgravity experiments on board the International Space Station, combined with particle-resolved direct numerical simulations, were conducted to investigate the long-term flocculation behavior of clay suspensions in saline water in the absence of gravity. After an initial homogenization of the suspensions, different clay compositions were continuously monitored for 99 days, allowing a detailed analysis of aggregate growth through image processing. The results indicate that the onboard oscillations (g-jitter) may have accelerated the aggregation process.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFACS Macro Lett
September 2025
Pritzker School of Molecular Engineering, The University of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois 60637, United States.
Introducing dynamic covalent chemistries into polymer networks allows access to complex linear viscoelasticity, owing to the reversible nature of the dynamic bonds. While this macroscopic mechanical behavior is influenced by the dynamic exchange of these chemistries, connecting the microscopic dynamics to the bulk properties is hindered by the time scale conventional techniques can observe. Here, light scattering passive microrheology is applied to probe short-time dynamics of dynamic covalent networks that consist of telechelic benzalcyanoacetate (BCA) Michael acceptors and thiol-functionalized cross-linkers.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFSoft Matter
September 2025
Department of Chemistry, The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, Pennsylvania 16802, USA.
We introduce a theoretical and computational framework for extracting the pressure equation of state (EoS) of an active suspension from its steady-state sedimentation profile. As EoSs are prerequisites for many theories in active matter, determining how pressure depends on key parameters such as density, activity, and interparticle interactions is essential to make quantitative predictions relevant to materials design and engineering applications. Focusing on the one-dimensional active Brownian particle (1D-ABP) model, we show that the pressure measured in a homogeneous periodic system can be recovered from the spatial profiles established in sedimentation equilibrium.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFSensors (Basel)
August 2025
Division of Systems and Automatic Control, Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of Patras, Rio, 26504 Patras, Greece.
Efficient autonomous exploration in unknown obstacle cluttered environments with interior obstacles remains a challenging task for mobile robots. In this work, we present a novel exploration process for a non-holonomic agent exploring 2D spaces using onboard LiDAR sensing. The proposed method generates velocity commands based on the calculation of the solution of an elliptic Partial Differential Equation with Dirichlet boundary conditions.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFSoft Matter
August 2025
Department of Mechanical Engineering, Polytechnic University of Puerto Rico, San Juan, PR 00918, USA.
This work analyzes the influence of the time-dependent clustering aggregation process on the transient and equilibrium magnetization of a monodisperse magnetic colloidal suspension under a uniform magnetic field Brownian dynamics simulations. The clustering aggregation process is characterized by microstructural properties, such as the nucleation-growth factor, 〈()〉, mean cluster size, 〈()〉, kinetic exponent, , effective radius, 〈〉, and radial distribution function, (). These are analyzed in terms of the volume fraction, , the dipolar coupling parameter, , and the Langevin parameter, .
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