Probing scale-dependent liveliness with nonequilibrium thermospectroscopy
Abstract
Probing the spatially heterogeneous activity across scales is a major challenge in living matter. Energy injection at diverse length scales leads to mode coupling, inter-modal energy transfer, and entropy production. We demonstrate the emergence of multiple effective (``active'') temperatures in nonequilibrium molecular- and Brownian-dynamics simulations of an active polymer. Via a generalised Langevin equation for a labelled monomer we identify spectral noise temperatures and their relation to the underlying activity landscape. A harmonic trap of variable stiffness can serve as a minimally invasive prototypical spectroscopic device to selectively scan through the emergent effective temperatures and thereby resolve the scale-dependent activity.
Cite
@article{arxiv.2603.08116,
title = {Probing scale-dependent liveliness with nonequilibrium thermospectroscopy},
author = {Joscha Mecke and Klaus Kroy},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2603.08116},
year = {2026}
}