Single active particle engine utilizing a non-reciprocal coupling between particle's position and self-propulsion

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates that a single self-propelled particle with non-reciprocal coupling can be used as a microscopic engine to extract work, leveraging correlations between its position and self-propulsion.

Contribution

It introduces a novel method to extract work from a single active particle by employing non-reciprocal coupling and aligning interactions.

Findings

Work can be extracted from a single self-propelled particle at constant temperature.

Non-reciprocal coupling enables control over particle correlations.

The approach provides a new way to harness active matter for energy applications.

Abstract

We recently argued that a self-propelled particle is formally equivalent to a system consisting of two subsystems coupled by a non-reciprocal interaction [Phys. Rev. E 100, 050603(R) (2019)]. Here we show that this non-reciprocal coupling allows to extract useful work from a single self-propelled particle maintained at constant temperature, by using an aligning interaction to influence correlations between the particle's position and self-propulsion.