Active matter under control: Insights from response theory

TL;DR

This paper develops a new thermodynamic control framework for active matter systems, enabling the design of responsive materials that can efficiently switch between states with minimal energy dissipation.

Contribution

It introduces a versatile approach combining stochastic thermodynamics and response theory to optimally control active matter far from equilibrium.

Findings

Framework for thermodynamic control of active matter

Optimal protocols for state switching with minimal dissipation

Application to both continuous and discrete active systems

Abstract

Active constituents burn fuel to sustain individual motion, giving rise to collective effects that are not seen in systems at thermal equilibrium, such as phase separation with purely repulsive interactions. There is a great potential in harnessing the striking phenomenology of active matter to build novel controllable and responsive materials that surpass passive ones. Yet, we currently lack a systematic roadmap to predict the protocols driving active systems between different states in a way that is thermodynamically optimal. Equilibrium thermodynamics is an inadequate foundation to this end, due to the dissipation rate arising from the constant fuel consumption in active matter. Here, we derive and implement a versatile framework for the thermodynamic control of active matter. Combining recent developments in stochastic thermodynamics and nonequilibrium response theory, our approach shows how to find the optimal control for either continuous- or discrete-state active systems operating arbitrarily far from equilibrium. Our results open the door to designing novel active materials which are not only built to stabilize specific nonequilibrium collective states, but are also optimized to switch between different states at minimum dissipation.