Microscopic derivation of the hydrodynamics of active-Brownian-particle suspensions.

Abstract

We derive the hydrodynamic equations of motion for a fluid of active particles described by underdamped Langevin equations that reduce to the active-Brownian-particle model, in the overdamped limit. The contraction into the hydrodynamic description is performed by locally averaging the particle dynamics with the nonequilibrium many-particle probability density, whose formal expression is found in the physically relevant limit of high friction through a multiple-time-scale analysis. This approach permits us to identify the conditions under which self-propulsion can be subsumed into the fluid stress tensor and thus to define systematically and unambiguously the local pressure of the active fluid.