Eur. Phys. J. E (2019) 42: 62
https://doi.org/10.1140/epje/i2019-11826-7

Regular Article

Enhanced dynamics of active Brownian particles in periodic obstacle arrays and corrugated channels

¹ S.N. Bose National Centre for Basic Sciences, J D Block, Sector III, 700106, Salt Lake City, Kolkata, India
² Department of Physics, Indian Institute of Technology (BHU), 221005, Varanasi, India

^* e-mail: sudipta.pattanayak@bose.res.in
^** e-mail: rakesh.das@bose.res.in
^*** e-mail: manoranjan.kumar@boson.bose.res.in
^**** e-mail: smishra.phy@itbhu.ac.in

Received: 10 October 2018
Accepted: 15 April 2019
Published online: 23 May 2019

Abstract

We study the motion of an active Brownian particle (ABP) using the overdamped Langevin dynamics on a two-dimensional substrate with periodic array of obstacles and in a quasi-one-dimensional corrugated channel comprised of periodically arrayed obstacles. The periodic arrangement of the obstacles enhances the persistent motion of the ABP in comparison to its motion in the free space. Persistent motion increases with the activity of the ABP. We note that the periodic arrangement induces directionality in ABP motion at late time, and it increases with the size of the obstacles. We also note that the ABP exhibits a super-diffusive dynamics in the corrugated channel. The transport property is independent of the shape of the channel; rather it depends on the packing fraction of the obstacles in the system. However, the ABP shows the usual diffusive dynamics in the quasi-one-dimensional channel with flat boundary.