Escape of an Active Ring from an Attractive Surface: Behaving Like a Self-Propelled Brownian Particle

Escape of active agents from metastable states are of great current interest in statistical and biological physics. In this study, we find that a flexible active Brownian ring escapes from a flat attractive surface though two distinct mechanisms: Kramers-like thermal activation at large rotational diffusion coefficients, but with an effective temperature, and the first-passage process at small rotational diffusion coefficients. The escape time depends explicitly on the shape of potential barrier at large activity and small rotational diffusion coefficient. Moreover, when the propulsion force was biased along its contour, escape becomes more difficult and is primarily caused by thermal noise. Our findings highlight that, despite its intricate configuration, the active ring can be taken as an self-propelled Brownian particle when studying its escape from a smooth surface.