Inertia-induced mechanism for giant enhancement of transport generated by active fluctuations

Abstract

Active matter is one of the hottest topics in physics nowadays. As a prototype of living systems operating in viscous environments it has usually been modeled in terms of the overdamped dynamics. Recently, active matter in the underdamped regime has gained a place in the spotlight. In this work we unveil another remarkable face of active matter. In doing so we demonstrate and explain an inertia-induced mechanism of giant enhancement of transport driven by active fluctuations which does emerge neither in the overdamped nor in the underdamped limit but occurs exclusively in the strong damping regime. It may be relevant not only for living systems where fluctuations generated by the metabolism are active by default but also for artificial ones, in particular for designing ultrafast micro and nano-robots. Our findings open new avenues of research in a very vibrant field of active matter.