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Main Authors: Koch, Colin-Marius, Wilczek, Michael
Format: Preprint
Published: 2025
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Online Access:https://arxiv.org/abs/2511.11154
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author Koch, Colin-Marius
Wilczek, Michael
author_facet Koch, Colin-Marius
Wilczek, Michael
contents Systems of active particles can show a large variety of collective behavior. In theory, two aspects determine the collective behavior: the model at the particle level and the parameter regime. While many studies consider a single model and study its parameter regime, here, we focus on the former aspect. Motivated by experiments that study dilute suspensions of Chlamydomonas reinhardtii in a self-generated oxygen gradient, we compare various models with external field-dependent motility to understand how the collective behavior changes between models. We vary the particle-particle interaction from no interactions to steric interactions, the particle shape from round disks to dumbbells, the self-propulsion mechanism from constant speed to rocking motion, and the particle's center of mass from the geometric center to off-center. We find that changes in the model of the active agents can lead to similar statistics in the dilute regime and different collective behavior in the dense regime. We conclude that active particle models do not easily generalize for different real active agents, but instead require a clear understanding of the agents' microscopic properties.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2511_11154
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Models for active particles: common features and differences
Koch, Colin-Marius
Wilczek, Michael
Soft Condensed Matter
Systems of active particles can show a large variety of collective behavior. In theory, two aspects determine the collective behavior: the model at the particle level and the parameter regime. While many studies consider a single model and study its parameter regime, here, we focus on the former aspect. Motivated by experiments that study dilute suspensions of Chlamydomonas reinhardtii in a self-generated oxygen gradient, we compare various models with external field-dependent motility to understand how the collective behavior changes between models. We vary the particle-particle interaction from no interactions to steric interactions, the particle shape from round disks to dumbbells, the self-propulsion mechanism from constant speed to rocking motion, and the particle's center of mass from the geometric center to off-center. We find that changes in the model of the active agents can lead to similar statistics in the dilute regime and different collective behavior in the dense regime. We conclude that active particle models do not easily generalize for different real active agents, but instead require a clear understanding of the agents' microscopic properties.
title Models for active particles: common features and differences
topic Soft Condensed Matter
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2511.11154