Power spectral density of trajectories of active Ornstein-Uhlenbeck particles

TL;DR

This paper develops an exact theoretical framework for analyzing the power spectral density of active Ornstein-Uhlenbeck particles, revealing unique spectral features under confinement and free motion, with implications for experimental active matter studies.

Contribution

The authors derive an exact theory for the PSD of AOUPs, uncovering novel spectral signatures and finite-time effects in active diffusion systems.

Findings

Active motion in free space retains a Brownian $f^{-2}$ spectrum with modified amplitude.

Under confinement, the spectrum shows a two-plateau structure and a new $f^{-4}$ scaling.

Finite observation time affects the low-frequency plateau and high-frequency oscillations distinctly.

Abstract

The power spectral density (PSD) is a central frequency-domain descriptor of stochastic processes. While PSDs have been studied for Brownian motion and a few anomalous diffusion processes, the spectral densities of active nonequilibrium processes remain almost unexplored. Here, we present an exact theory for the PSDs of active diffusion using the model of active Ornstein-Uhlenbeck particles (AOUPs). We investigate the spectral densities of AOUPs in free space and under harmonic confinement. In free space, active motion does not alter the Brownian $f^{-2}$ spectrum, but only modifies its amplitude and introduces a crossover at the persistence frequency. Under confinement, the spectrum exhibits a rich variety of features depending on the persistence, trap relaxation, and activity strength, including two characteristic signatures that are absent in both thermal systems and free AOUPs. These are a two-plateau structure from a double-trapping mechanism due to two noise sources, and the new $f^{-4}$ spectral scaling associated with transient ballistic motion. We also investigate the finite time effects through the finite-time PSD, and find that the low-frequency plateau and high frequency oscillation exhibit distinct dependences on the observation time $T$ in free and confined systems. Finally, we discuss our results in connection with previously reported experimental studies of active systems. Our results provide an analytically tractable framework for interpreting such systems.