Active matter systems, which convert internal chemical energy or energy from the environment into directed motion, are ubiquitous in nature and exhibit a range of emerging non-equilibrium behaviors. However, most of the current works on active matter have been devoted to particles, and the study of active polymers has only recently come into the spotlight due to their prevalence within living organisms. The intricate interplay between activity and conformational degrees of freedom gives rise to novel structural and dynamical behaviors of active polymers. Research in active polymers remarkably broadens diverse concepts of polymer physics, such as molecular architecture, dynamics, scaling and so on, which is of significant importance for the development of new polymer materials with unique performance. Furthermore, active polymers are often found in strongly interacting and crowded systems and in complex environments, so that the understanding of this behavior is essential for future developments of novel polymer-based biomaterials. This review thereby focuses on the study of active polymers in complex and crowded environments, and aims to provide insights into the fundamental physics underlying the adaptive and collective behaviors far from equilibrium, as well as the open challenges that the field is currently facing.

中文翻译：

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复杂拥挤环境中活性聚合物的非平衡结构和动力学行为

活性物质系统将内部化学能或来自环境的能量转化为定向运动，在自然界中无处不在，并表现出一系列新兴的非平衡行为。然而，目前大多数关于活性物质的研究都致力于粒子，而活性聚合物的研究由于其在生物体内的普遍存在，最近才引起人们的关注。活性和构象自由度之间复杂的相互作用产生了活性聚合物的新颖结构和动力学行为。活性聚合物的研究极大地拓宽了高分子物理的多种概念，如分子结构、动力学、尺度等，这对于开发具有独特性能的新型高分子材料具有重要意义。此外，活性聚合物经常出现在强相互作用和拥挤的系统以及复杂的环境中，因此理解这种行为对于新型聚合物生物材料的未来发展至关重要。因此，本综述重点研究复杂和拥挤环境中的活性聚合物，旨在深入了解远离平衡的适应性和集体行为背后的基础物理学，以及该领域目前面临的开放挑战。