Physics and Astronomy Colloquium

Active particles are the ones having a source of energy to drive them, in addition to the usual Brownian motion. It could be swimming bacteria, or artificial swimmers of various kinds. Statistical mechanics of such out-of-equilibrium systems presents many steep challenges and features many unexpected phenomena. While energy barriers is a staple in physics (Boltzmann limit), force barriers are important for active particles (Sisyphus limit), leading to rectification of random walks, repulsive depletion, etc. Activity can also cause separation of active particles from passive ones even when there is no energetic preference for segregation. The latter effect is particularly strong for polymers, promising interesting applications in the physics of cell nucleus.