Self-sustained frictional cooling in active matter

Alexander P. Antonov, Marco Musacchio, Hartmut Löwen () and Lorenzo Caprini ()
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Alexander P. Antonov: Heinrich-Heine-Universität Düsseldorf
Marco Musacchio: Heinrich-Heine-Universität Düsseldorf
Hartmut Löwen: Heinrich-Heine-Universität Düsseldorf
Lorenzo Caprini: Heinrich-Heine-Universität Düsseldorf

Nature Communications, 2025, vol. 16, issue 1, 1-12

Abstract: Abstract Cooling processes in nature are typically generated by external contact with a cold reservoir or bath. According to the laws of thermodynamics, the final temperature of a system is determined by the temperature of the environment. Here, we report a spontaneous internal cooling phenomenon for active particles, occurring without external contact. This effect, termed self-sustained frictional cooling, arises from the interplay between activity and dry (Coulomb) friction, and in addition is self-sustained from particles densely caged by their neighbors. If an active particle moves in its cage, dry friction will stop any further motion after a collision with a neighbor particle thus cooling the particle down to an extremely low temperature. We demonstrate and verify this self-sustained cooling through experiments and simulations on active granular robots and identify dense frictional arrested clusters coexisting with hot, dilute regions. Our findings offer potential applications in two-dimensional swarm robotics, where activity and dry friction can serve as externally tunable mechanisms to regulate the swarm’s dynamical and structural properties.

Date: 2025
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DOI: 10.1038/s41467-025-62626-9

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