Fluctuation–dissipation relations in the absence of detailed balance: formalism and applications to active matter

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We present a comprehensive study about the relationship between the way detailed balance is broken in non-equilibrium systems and the resulting violations of the fluctuation–dissipation theorem. Starting from stochastic dynamics with both odd and even variables under time-reversal, we derive an explicit expression for the time-reversal operator, i.e. the Markovian operator which generates the time-reversed trajectories. We then exploit the relation between entropy production and the breakdown of detailed balance to establish general constraints on the non-equilibrium steady-states (NESS), which relate the non-equilibrium character of the dynamics with symmetry properties of the NESS distribution. This provides a direct route to derive extended fluctuation–dissipation relations, expressing the linear response function in terms of NESS correlations. Such framework provides a unified way to understand the departure from equilibrium of active systems and its linear response. We then consider two paradigmatic models of interacting self-propelled particles, namely active Brownian particles and active Ornstein–Uhlenbeck particles. We analyze the non-equilibrium character of these systems (also within a Markov and a Chapman–Enskog approximation) and derive extended fluctuation–dissipation relations for them, clarifying which features of these active model systems are genuinely non-equilibrium.