Peer-reviewedCC BYEPL - Europhysics Letters
Work to insert a particle into an active fluid
Abstract
The chemical potential is defined as the work to quasi-statically add a particle to an equilibrium system. Inspired by this definition, we investigate how the work to add a particle to an active fluid depends on the activity, density, and insertion protocol. We find that the average work is protocol dependent and decreases with activity. Moreover, the work fluctuations retain asymmetric non-Gaussian tails even for slow particle insertions. We then compare the average particle-insertion work to the steady-state densities observed when two active fluids are brought into diffusive contact and observe opposing trends between density and work.
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BibTeX
@article{cisneros2026work,
title = {{Work to insert a particle into an active fluid}},
author = {Freddy Cisneros and Alexandre Solon and Jordan Horowitz},
journal = {EPL - Europhysics Letters},
year = {2026},
month = sep,
doi = {10.1209/0295-5075/ae46d7},
eprint = {2605.19026},
archivePrefix = {arXiv},
url = {https://hal.science/hal-05761991v1},
note = {CC BY},
}
RIS
TY - JOUR
TI - Work to insert a particle into an active fluid
AU - Freddy Cisneros
AU - Alexandre Solon
AU - Jordan Horowitz
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/09/24
JO - EPL - Europhysics Letters
DO - 10.1209/0295-5075/ae46d7
UR - https://hal.science/hal-05761991v1
AB - The chemical potential is defined as the work to quasi-statically add a particle to an equilibrium system. Inspired by this definition, we investigate how the work to add a particle to an active fluid depends on the activity, density, and insertion protocol. We find that the average work is protocol dependent and decreases with activity. Moreover, the work fluctuations retain asymmetric non-Gaussian tails even for slow particle insertions. We then compare the average particle-insertion work to the steady-state densities observed when two active fluids are brought into diffusive contact and observe opposing trends between density and work.
SN - 0295-5075
SN - 1286-4854
ER -