Jamming of active particles in quasi-1D geometries

Abstract:
We study the behavior of active particles in 1D simple exclusion process-like models, where we have a ring discretized into sites that particles can jump between, and on a single site, there can be at most two particles. We investigate in detail the jamming transition, i.e. when a situation occurs, in which most of the particles are in one cluster and cannot move, and how such a cluster behaves.
In particular, we study a case with a broken spatial symmetry, where in one direction there are dead-ends appended at each site, in which active particles can be trapped. We show that the jamming transition is of first-order type, characterized by long-lived metastable states. Broken spatial symmetry leads to a non-zero ratchet current, which in turn competes with the jamming transition.