Brownian Thermometry Beyond Equilibrium

Abstract: Since Albert Einstein's seminal 1905-paper on Brownian motion, the temperature of fluids and gases of known viscosity can be deduced from observations of the fluctuations of small suspended probe particles. We summarize recent generalizations of this standard technique of Brownian thermometry to situations involving spatially heterogeneous temperature fields and other non-equilibrium conditions in the solvent medium. The notion of effective temperatures is reviewed and its scope critically assessed. Our emphasis is on practically relevant real-world applications, for which effective temperatures have been explicitly computed and experimentally confirmed. We also elucidate the relation to the more general concept of (effective) temperature spectra and their measurement by Brownian thermospectrometry. Finally, we highlight the conceptual importance of non-equilibrium thermometry for active and biological matter, such as microswimmer suspensions or biological cells, which often play the role of non-thermal ('active') heat baths for embedded Brownian degrees of freedom.