Dynamical active particles in the overdamped limit

Mobile microscopic bodies, such as motile cells, can be modelled phenomenologically as ‘active particles’ which can move against external forces by depleting an internal energy depot. The microscopic mechanisms underlying such ‘active’ behaviour must ultimately obey fundamental physics: energy depots must actually consist of dynamical degrees of freedom, such as chemical reaction coordinates, which in some way couple to the particle’s motional degrees of freedom. As a step towards connecting phenomenological models with microscopic dynamical mechanisms, recent papers have studied the minimalistic dynamical mechanism of a ‘dynamical active particle’, and shown how nonlinear couplings can allow steady energy transfer from depot to motion, even in the presence of weak dissipation. Most real active particles move through viscous environments, however, and are strongly damped. Here we therefore generalize the dynamical active particle into the overdamped regime. We find that its mechanism still operates, and in particular allows the overdamped active particle to travel just as far against friction as the undamped model, by moving at a slower average speed. Our results suggest that active particle phenomenology can indeed be consistent with comprehensible dynamical mechanisms, even in strongly dissipative environments.