Fluctuation-Dissipation Relations in Active Matter Systems

Abstract: We investigate the non-equilibrium character of self-propelled particles through the study of the linear response of the active Ornstein-Uhlenbeck particle (AOUP) model. We express the linear response in terms of correlations computed in the absence of perturbations, proposing a particularly compact and readable fluctuation-dissipation relation (FDR): such an expression explicitly separates equilibrium and non-equilibrium contributions due to self-propulsion. As a case study, we consider non-interacting AOUP confined in single-well and double-well potentials. In the former case, we also unveil the effect of dimensionality, studying one, two, and three-dimensional dynamics. We show that information about the distance from equilibrium can be deduced from the FDR, putting in evidence the roles of position and velocity variables in the non-equilibrium relaxation.