Not-so-glass-like Caging and Fluctuations of an Active Matter Model

Abstract

Simple active models of matter recapitulate complex biological phenomena. The out-of-equilibrium nature of these models, however, often makes them beyond the reach of first-principle descriptions. This limitation is particularly perplexing when attempting to distinguish between different glass-forming mechanisms. We here consider a minimal active system in various spatial dimensions to identify the processes underlying their sluggish dynamics. Activity is found to markedly impact cage escape processes and critical fluctuations associated with exploring lower-dimensional caging features.