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Self-motility of an active particle induced by correlations in the surrounding solution

Current models of phoretic transport rely on molecular forces creating a "diffuse" particle-fluid interface. We investigate theoretically an alternative mechanism, in which a diffuse interface emerges solely due to a non-vanishing correlation length of the surrounding solution. This mechanism can drive self-motility of a chemically active particle. Numerical estimates indicate that the velocity can reach micrometers per second. The predicted phenomenology includes a bilinear dependence of the velocity on the activity and a possible double velocity reversal upon varying the correlation length.