The non-equilibrium solvent response force: What happens if you push a Brownian particle

Abstract

In this letter we discuss how to add forces to the Langevin equation. We derive the exact generalized Langevin equation for the dynamics of one particle subject to an external force embedded in a system of many interacting particles. The external force may depend on time and/or on the phase-space coordinates of the system. We construct a projection operator such that the drift coefficient, the memory kernel, and the fluctuating force of the generalized Langevin equation are the same as for the system without external driving. We show that the external force then enters the generalized Langevin equation additively. In addition we obtain one term which, to our knowledge, has up to now been overlooked. We analyze this additional term for an exemplary system.