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A Brownian particle performs gyrating motion around a potential energy minimum when subjected to thermal noises from two different heat baths. Here, we propose a magneto-gyrator made of a single charged Brownian particle that is steered by an external magnetic field. Key properties, such as the direction of gyration, the torque exerted by the engine on the confining potential and the maximum power delivered by the microengine can be tuned by varying the strength and direction of the applied magnetic field. Further tunability is obtained by rotating the potential in the plane perpendicular to the direction of the magnetic filed. We show that in this generic scenario, the microengine can be stalled and even reversed by the magnetic field. Finally, we highlight a property of the magneto-gyrator that has no counterpart in the overdamped approximation--the heat loss from the hot to cold bath requires explicit knowledge of the mass of the particle. Consequently, the efficiency of the microengine is mass-dependent even in the overdamped limit., Comment: 14 pages, 4 figures

We study the motion of a Brownian particle subjected to Lorentz force due to an external magnetic field. Each spatial degree of freedom of the particle is coupled to a different thermostat. We show that the magnetic field results in correlation between different velocity components in the stationary state. Integrating the velocity autocorrelation matrix, we obtain the diffusion matrix that enters the Fokker-Planck equation for the probability density. The eigenvectors of the diffusion matrix do not align with the temperature axes. As a consequence the Brownian particle performs spatially correlated diffusion. We further show that in the presence of an isotropic confining potential, an unusual, flux-free steady state emerges which is characterized by a non-Boltzmann density distribution, which can be rotated by reversing the magnetic field. The nontrivial steady state properties of our system result from the Lorentz force induced coupling of the spatial degrees of freedom which cease to exist in equilibrium corresponding to a single-temperature system.

In systems with overdamped dynamics, the Lorentz force reduces the diffusivity of a Brownian particle in the plane perpendicular to the magnetic field. The anisotropy in diffusion implies that the Fokker-Planck equation for the probabiliy distribution of the particle acquires a tensorial coefficient. The tensor, however, is not a typical diffusion tensor due to the antisymmetric elements which account for the fact that Lorentz force curves the trajectory of a moving charged particle. This gives rise to unusual dynamics with features such as additional Lorentz fluxes and a nontrivial density distribution, unlike a diffusive system. The equilibrium properties are, however, unaffected by the Lorentz force. Here we show that by stochastically resetting the Brownian particle, a nonequilibrium steady state can be created which preserves the hallmark features of dynamics under Lorentz force. We then consider a minimalistic example of spatially inhomogeneous magnetic field, which shows how Lorentz fluxes fundamentally alter the boundary conditions giving rise to an unusual stationary state.

The Fokker-Planck equation provides complete statistical description of a particle undergoing random motion in a solvent. In the presence of Lorentz force due to an external magnetic field, the Fokker-Planck equation picks up a tensorial coefficient, which reflects the anisotropy of the particle's motion. This tensor, however, can not be interpreted as a diffusion tensor; there are antisymmetric terms which give rise to fluxes perpendicular to the density gradients. Here, we show that for an inhomogeneous magnetic field these nondiffusive fluxes have finite divergence and therefore affect the density evolution of the system. Only in the special cases of a uniform magnetic field or carefully chosen initial condition with the same symmetry as the magnetic field can these fluxes be ignored in the density evolution., Comment: 7 Pages, 4 Figures

We consider the nonequilibrium dynamics of a charged active Brownian particle in the presence of a space dependent magnetic field. It has recently been shown that the Lorentz force induces a particle flux perpendicular to density gradients, thus preventing a diffusive description of the dynamics. Whereas a passive system will eventually relax to an equilibrium state, unaffected by the magnetic field, an active system subject to a spatially varying Lorentz force settles into a nonequilibrium steady state characterized by an inhomogeneous density and divergence-free bulk fluxes. A macroscopic flux of charged active particles is induced by the gradient of the magnetic field only and does not require additional symmetric breaking such as density or potential gradients. This stands in marked contrast to similar phenomena in condensed matter such as the classical Hall effect. In a confined geometry we observe circulating fluxes, which can be reversed by inverting the direction of the magnetic field. Our theoretical approach, based on coarse-graining of the Fokker-Planck equation, yields analytical results for the density, fluxes, and polarization in the steady state, all of which are validated by direct computer simulation. We demonstrate that passive tracer particles can be used to measure the essential effects of the Lorentz force on the active particle bath, and we discuss under which conditions the effects of the flux could be observed experimentally., Comment: 18 Pages, 6 Figures

We study the stochastic motion of a particle subject to spatially varying Lorentz force in the small-mass limit. The limiting procedure yields an additional drift term in the overdamped equation that cannot be obtained by simply setting mass to zero in the velocity Langevin equation. We show that whereas the overdamped equation of motion accurately captures the position statistics of the particle, it leads to unphysical fluxes in the system that persist in the long time limit; an anomalous result inconsistent with thermal equilibrium. These fluxes are calculated analytically from the overdamped equation of motion and found to be in quantitative agreement with Brownian dynamics simulations. Our study suggests that the overdamped approximation, though perfectly suited for position statistics, can yield unphysical values for velocity-dependent variables such as flux and entropy production., Comment: 9 pages, 3 figures

We study the phase transition dynamics of a fluid system in which the particles diffuse anisotropically in space. The motivation to study such a situation is provided by systems of interacting magnetic colloidal particles subject to the Lorentz force. The Smoluchowski equation for the many-particle probability distribution then aquires an anisotropic diffusion tensor. We show that anisotropic diffusion results in qualitatively different dynamics of spinodal decomposition compared to the isotropic case. Using the method of dynamical density functional theory, we predict that the intermediate-stage decomposition dynamics are slowed down significantly by anisotropy; the coupling between different Fourier modes is strongly reduced. Numerical calculations are performed for a model (Yukawa) fluid that exhibits gas-liquid phase separation., Comment: 9 pages, 7 figures

A fundamental assumption of the dynamical density functional theory (DDFT) of colloidal systems is that a grand-canonical free energy functional may be employed to generate the thermodynamic driving forces. Using one-dimensional hard-rods as a model system we analyze the validity of this key assumption and show that unphysical self-interactions of the tagged particle density fields, arising from coupling to a particle reservoir, are responsible for the excessively fast relaxation predicted by the theory. Moreover, our findings suggest that even employing a canonical functional would not lead to an improvement for many-particle systems, if only the total density is considered. We present several possible schemes to suppress these effects by incorporating tagged densities. When applied to confined systems we demonstrate, using a simple example, that DDFT neccessarily leads to delocalized tagged particle density distributions, which do not respect the fundamental geometrical contraints apparent in Brownian dynamics simulation data. The implication of these results for possible applications of DDFT to treat the glass transition are discussed.