Field theory of active Levy walks

Many processes in biology that involve motile agents such as individual cells or entire organisms, are well described by Levy walks, which is a traditional model of motion that occurs ballistically (i.e. in straight lines) over long stretches, interrupted by sudden reorientations (tumbles). In this project we develop a field-theoretic framework to characterise such motion with the particular aim to understand entropy production in these processes, which is an important quantity as far as the non-equilibrium nature of active matter is concerned, as well as cover times, a long-standing research interest in ecology.
The particular field-theoretic framework, based on master equations that respect the particle nature of the active agents, has, to our knowledge, not been used to describe Levy walks before. Instead, effective field theories have been drawn on, which, however, ignore the particle nature of the agents to large extent.
The project is situated in the strategic theme of the physical sciences and falls in the research areas of Biophysics and soft matter physics, more concretely "Physics of Life".