Exact Nonlinear Active Microrheology in Diffusive Single-File Systems

Abstract: Active microrheology probes a crowded medium by forcing a tracer and measuring its response. In single-file transport, where particles cannot overtake, a constant force $F$ produces a subballistic displacement $\langle X_t\rangle\simeq \sqrt{t}\,ξ(F)$ together with a persistent bath deformation. Despite decades of work, the exact nonlinear response at arbitrary force has remained confined to a few special solvable models. Here we remove this restriction by combining recent advances in hydrodynamic transport coefficients, a pressure-balance formulation of the local drive, and single-file duality, which eliminates the resulting moving boundary. This yields a closed exact boundary-value problem for general diffusive single files, determining both $ξ(F)$ and the full density profile. For overdamped Brownian particles with general interactions, all microscopic interaction details enter only through the equilibrium equation of state, bringing realistic interacting systems, including finite-width quasi-one-dimensional channels, within exact reach. The solution also reveals universal global laws; in particular, the bath-density dipole is fixed by the applied force independently of the interaction potential.