Configurational temperature in active matter. II. Quantifying the deviation from thermal equilibrium

TL;DR

This paper introduces a method using configurational temperature to quantify how far active matter systems are from thermal equilibrium, validated through simulations and applicable to various systems.

Contribution

It proposes a novel, practical measure of non-equilibrium in active matter based on the ratio of systemic to configurational temperature, validated with simulation data.

Findings

The ratio $ ext{T}_s/ ext{T}_c$ effectively quantifies deviation from equilibrium.

$ ext{T}_s/ ext{T}_c$ remains approximately invariant along the MIPS boundary.

The measure applies broadly beyond active matter to other potential-energy systems.

Abstract

This paper suggests using the configurational temperature $\Tc$ for quantifying how far an active-matter system is from thermal equilibrium. We measure this ``distance'' by the ratio of the systemic temperature $\Ts$ to $\Tc$, where $\Ts$ is the canonical-ensemble temperature for which the average potential energy is equal to that of the active-matter system. $\Tc$ is ``local'' in the sense that it is the average of a function, which only depends on how the potential energy varies in the vicinity of a given configuration; in contrast $\Ts$ is a global quantity. The quantity $\Ts/\Tc$ is straightforward to evaluate in a computer simulation; equilibrium simulations in conjunction with a single steady-state active-matter configuration are enough to determine $\Ts/\Tc$. We validate the suggestion that $\Ts/\Tc$ quantifies the deviation from thermal equilibrium by data for the radial distribution function of 3d Kob-Andersen and 2d Yukawa active-matter models with active Ornstein-Uhlenbeck and active Brownian Particle dynamics. Moreover, we show that $\Ts/\Tc$, structure, and dynamics of the homogeneous phase are all approximately invariant along the motility-induced phase separation (MIPS) boundary in the phase diagram of the 2d Yukawa model. The measure $\Ts/\Tc$ is not limited to active matter; it can be used for quantifying how far any system involving a potential-energy function, e.g., a driven Hamiltonian system, is from thermal equilibrium.