Extreme value statistics for branching run-and-tumble particles
arXiv:2006.04841
Abstract
The extreme value statistics of active matter offer significant insight into their unique properties. A phase transition has recently been reported in a model of branching run-and-tumble particles, describing the spatial spreading of an evolving colony of active matter in one-dimension. In a "persistent" phase, the particles form macroscopic robust clusters that ballistically propagate as a whole while in an "intermittent" phase, particles are isolated instead. We focus our study on the fluctuations of the rightmost position reached by time for this model. At long time, as the colony progressively invades the unexplored region, the cumulative probability of is described by a travelling front. The transition has a remarkable impact on this front. In the intermittent phase it is qualitatively similar to the front satisfying the Fisher-KPP equation, which famously describes the extreme value statistics of the non-active branching Brownian motion. A dramatically different behaviour appears in the persistent phase, where activity imparts the front with unexpected and unusual features which we compute exactly.
14 pages, 6 figures