Studies of the rectified current induced by active particles have received great attention due to its possible application to a microscopic motor in biological environments. Insertion of an asymmetric passive object amid many active particles has been regarded as an essential ingredient for generating such a rectified motion. Here, we report that the reverse situation is also possible, where the motion of an active object can be rectified by its geometric asymmetry amid many passive particles. This may describe a unidirectional motion of apolar biological agents with asymmetric shape. We also find a weak but less dispersive rectified motion in a passive mode without energy pump-in. This “moving by dissipation” mechanism could be used as a design principle for developing more reliable microscopic motors.

• Received 12 April 2021
• Accepted 18 October 2021

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevResearch.3.L042011

Published by the American Physical Society under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license. Further distribution of this work must maintain attribution to the author(s) and the published article's title, journal citation, and DOI.

Published by the American Physical Society