Single active particle engine utilizing a nonreciprocal coupling between particle position and self-propulsion.

We recently argued that a self-propelled particle is formally equivalent to a system consisting of two subsystems coupled by a nonreciprocal interaction [Phys. Rev. E 100, 050603(R) (2019)2470-004510.1103/PhysRevE.100.050603]. Here, we show that this nonreciprocal coupling allows us to extract useful work from a single self-propelled particle maintained at constant temperature, by using an aligning interaction to control correlations between the particle's position and self-propulsion.