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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Kafri, Yariv, Tailleur, Julien
Format: Preprint
Published: 2026
Subjects:
Online Access:https://arxiv.org/abs/2603.22424
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author Kafri, Yariv
Tailleur, Julien
author_facet Kafri, Yariv
Tailleur, Julien
contents We study the simplest terms that need to be included in active field theories to couple them to external potentials. To do so, we consider active Brownian particles and implement a systematic perturbative expansion in the particle persistence time. The result is a non-trivial coupling between density and potential gradients, which accounts for the nonequilibrium features of active particles in the presence of an external potential, from boundary accumulation to far-field density modulation. We show how the method can be applied to particles interacting via pairwise forces and to spatial modulations of the propulsion speed.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2603_22424
institution arXiv
publishDate 2026
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle How active field theories couple to external potentials
Kafri, Yariv
Tailleur, Julien
Statistical Mechanics
We study the simplest terms that need to be included in active field theories to couple them to external potentials. To do so, we consider active Brownian particles and implement a systematic perturbative expansion in the particle persistence time. The result is a non-trivial coupling between density and potential gradients, which accounts for the nonequilibrium features of active particles in the presence of an external potential, from boundary accumulation to far-field density modulation. We show how the method can be applied to particles interacting via pairwise forces and to spatial modulations of the propulsion speed.
title How active field theories couple to external potentials
topic Statistical Mechanics
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2603.22424