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  • Letter
  • Open Access

Neural-network-assisted Boltzmann approach for dilute microswimmer suspensions

Haruki Hayano* and Akira Furukawa†

Kang Kim‡

  • Division of Chemical Engineering, Department of Materials Engineering Science, Graduate School of Engineering Science, The University of Osaka, Toyonaka, Osaka 560-8531, Japan

  • *Contact author: hayano@iis.u-tokyo.ac.jp
  • †Contact author: furu@iis.u-tokyo.ac.jp
  • ‡Contact author: kk@cheng.es.osaka-u.ac.jp

Phys. Rev. Research 8, L032029 – Published 21 August, 2026

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/7565-51x2

Abstract

We introduce a neural-network-assisted Boltzmann framework that learns the binary-collision map of microswimmers from two-body scattering data and uses it as microscopic input to evaluate Boltzmann collision integrals. For a representative swimmer model, the learned map provides quantitative predictions for rotational and translational diffusivities, in close agreement with direct many-body hydrodynamic simulations, and it also enables a linear-stability analysis of the isotropic state against polar ordering within the same dilute, binary-collision-dominated regime. The key advance is not merely that a neural network approximates collision outcomes, but that it provides a compact and continuous representation of the full collision-geometry manifold, thereby making the Boltzmann collision integrals directly accessible and revealing which collisions dominate the overall transport and alignment/disalignment. Because the framework relies only on two-body collision statistics, it provides a transferable, data-driven route from microscopic scattering data to transport properties and ordering tendencies in dilute active suspensions.

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