Transport of particles driven by the traveling obstacle arrays

Transport of three types of particles (passive particles, active particles without polar interaction, and active particles with polar interaction) is numerically investigated in the presence of traveling obstacle arrays. The transport behaviors are different for different types of particles. For passive particles, there exists an optimal traveling speed (or the translational diffusion) at which the average velocity of particles takes its maximum value. For active particles without polar interaction, the average velocity of particles is a peaked function of the obstacle traveling speed. The average velocity decreases monotonically with increase of the rotational diffusion for large driving speed, while it is a peaked function of the rotational diffusion for small driving speed. For active particles with polar interaction, interestingly, within particular parameter regimes, active particles can move in the opposite direction to the obstacles. The average velocity of particles can change its direction by changing the system parameters (the obstacles driving speed, the polar interaction strength, and the rotational diffusion). Published by AIP Publishing.