Not-so-glass-like Caging and Fluctuations of an Active Matter Model

TL;DR

This paper investigates how activity influences the slow dynamics and cage escape processes in minimal active matter models across different dimensions, revealing effects on fluctuations and caging behavior.

Contribution

It provides a first-principles analysis of the impact of activity on glass-like dynamics in active matter models across multiple dimensions.

Findings

Activity significantly alters cage escape mechanisms.

Critical fluctuations are affected by activity.

Dimensionality influences the caging features in active systems.

Abstract

Simple active models of matter recapitulate complex biological phenomena. The out-of-equilibrium nature of these models, however, often makes them beyond the reach of first-principle descriptions. This limitation is particularly perplexing when attempting to distinguish between different glass-forming mechanisms. We here consider a minimal active system in various spatial dimensions to identify the processes underlying their sluggish dynamics. Activity is found to markedly impact cage escape processes and critical fluctuations associated with exploring lower-dimensional caging features.