We explore the role of inertia in the properties of active Brownian particles (ABPs) immersed in an underdamped background in two dimensions using Langevin dynamics computer simulation. Similar to an equilibrium two-dimensional passive interacting particle system, the system of ABPs transits from a liquid phase to a solid phase with the change in the coupling parameter, which is the ratio of interaction potential energy and thermal energy of the background solvent. Important qualitative and quantitative differences are found in the liquid-solid phase transition with increasing strength of activity as compared to those found in the conventional overdamped background limit. In the underdamped background, inherent activity is found to lead to a temperature, called the active temperature and defined by average velocity fluctuations of the ABPs, that is different from the fixed background solvent temperature. A new scaling law for active temperature as a function of activity strength is found near the liquid-solid boundary. Active temperature, which behaves similar to the thermodynamic equilibrium temperature, is also found to depend upon the interaction strength between the active particles and the strength of the background dissipation. With an increase in background dissipation, the difference between active temperature and the background solvent temperature decreases and the difference is found to eventually vanish in the overdamped limit, demonstrating the correctness of the calculation.

• Received 12 September 2019
• Revised 31 December 2019
• Accepted 27 February 2020

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevE.101.032121