Out-of-equilibrium dynamics of two interacting optically-trapped particles

TL;DR

This paper theoretically investigates the non-equilibrium steady-state dynamics of two hydrodynamically coupled particles in optical traps, revealing synchronized spinning and correlated rotational currents driven by temperature differences.

Contribution

It introduces a detailed Langevin equation model for two interacting particles with different temperatures, uncovering their synchronized rotational currents and non-zero curl probability flows in a non-equilibrium steady state.

Findings

Particles exhibit synchronized spinning around their centers of mass.

Currents of the particles are strongly correlated and follow elliptic orbits.

The system reaches a non-equilibrium steady state with non-zero probability currents.

Abstract

We present a theoretical analysis of a non-equilibrium dynamics in a model system consisting of two particles which move randomly on a plane. The two particles interact via a harmonic potential, experience their own (independent from each other) noises characterized by two different temperatures $T_1$ and $T_2$, and each particle is being held by its own optical tweezer. Such a system with two particle coupled by hydrodynamic interactions was previously realised experimentally in B\'erut et al. [EPL {\bf 107}, 60004 (2014)], and the difference between two temperatures has been achieved by exerting an additional noise on either of the tweezers. Framing the dynamics in terms of two coupled over-damped Langevin equations, we show that the system reaches a non-equilibrium steady-state with non-zero (for $T_1 \neq T_2$) probability currents that possess non-zero curls. As a consequence, in this system the particles are continuously spinning around their centers of mass in a completely synchronised way - the curls of currents at the instantaneous positions of two particles have the same magnitude and sign. Moreover, we demonstrate that the components of currents of two particles are strongly correlated and undergo a rotational motion along closed elliptic orbits.