Most probable paths for active Ornstein-Uhlenbeck particles

TL;DR

This paper analyzes the most probable paths of active Ornstein-Uhlenbeck particles using variational formalism, revealing insights into their non-equilibrium behavior and entropy production, which can inform the design of artificial active systems.

Contribution

It introduces a variational approach to identify the most probable paths of AOUPs and examines their entropy production, advancing understanding of non-equilibrium stochastic dynamics.

Findings

Most probable paths depend on persistence time and swim velocities.

Entropy production along extremum paths differs from average entropy production.

Insights into non-equilibrium behavior can aid in designing targeted active systems.

Abstract

Fluctuations play an important role in the dynamics of stochastic systems. In particular, for small systems, the most probable thermodynamic quantities differ from their averages because of the fluctuations. Using the Onsager Machlup variational formalism we analyze the most probable paths for non-equilibrium systems, in particular active Ornstein-Uhlenbeck particles (AOUP), and investigate how the entropy production along these paths differ from the average entropy production. We investigate how much information about their non-equilibrium nature can be obtained from their extremum paths and how these paths depend on the persistence time and their swim velocities. We also look at how the entropy production along the most probable paths varies with the active noise and how it differs from the average entropy production. This study would be useful to design artificial active systems with certain target trajectories.