Frenetic steering: nonequilibrium-enabled navigation

Abstract

We explain the steering of slow degrees of freedom by coupling them to driven components for which the time-symmetric reactivities are manipulated. We present the strategy and main principle that make that sort of navigation feasible. For illustration, nonlinear limit cycles (as in the van der Pol oscillator) and strange attractors (as in the Lorenz dynamics) are seen to emerge when the driving in the nonequilibrium medium is kept fixed while the frenesy is tuned to produce the required forces. We imagine that such frenetic steering is available in Life as well, allowing selection of the appropriate biological functioning.