- Letter
- Open Access
Neural-network-assisted Boltzmann approach for dilute microswimmer suspensions
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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Supplemental Material
References (46)
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- See Supplemental Material at http://link.aps.org/supplemental/10.1103/7565-51x2 for (1) the initial configuration and parameter cutoffs used in the hydrodynamic simulations, (2) the evaluation of self-diffusivity, (3) the derivation of the linearized equation for polar order, (4) the dependence of the alignment metric on collision parameters, (5) an application of the same framework to a neutral squirmer model as a minimal test of transferability, (6) the computational cost and practical advantage of the learned collision map, and (7) an assessment of dataset-size sufficiency based on the training and validation mean absolute errors for different training-set sizes.
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- Equation (3) gives the short-time slope of the mean-square orientation change produced by a single (uncorrelated) binary collision. If the swimming direction decorrelates sufficiently between collisions, as in dilute suspensions, this short-time slope coincides with the long-time rotational diffusivity defined in Eq. (2).
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