Phototactic orientation Fokker-Planck equation (${\partial }_{t}f=-{\nabla }_p\cdot (f\dot{\mathbf{p}})+D_r{\nabla }_p^{2}f$)

For isotropic rotational diffusion, orientation drift and probability density obey the displayed Fokker-Planck equation, normalized with respect to solid angle. Without flow, constant light $L{\mathbf{e}}_x$ gives the zero-current density $f_0=\lambda e^{\lambda p_x}/(4\pi \sinh \lambda )$, $\lambda =L/(\alpha D_r)$. Integration over the sphere gives unit mass; its mean projection is the Langevin function. The zero-light limit is the uniform density $1/(4\pi )$.

For light along ${\mathbf{e}}_x$, vorticity along ${\mathbf{e}}_y$ and $\epsilon =\omega /(2D_r)$, spherical coordinates $\mathbf{p}=(\cos \theta ,\sin \theta \cos \varphi ,\sin \theta \sin \varphi )$ give a first orientation-density correction proportional to $\sin \varphi g(\theta )$. The linearized alignment-diffusion operator preserves azimuthal harmonics and the rotation of the axisymmetric equilibrium forces only this sine harmonic. Angular integration makes the first correction to the mean purely vertical. Uniqueness follows from the weighted identity $\mathcal{A}(f_{0}h)={\nabla }_p\cdot (f_0{\nabla }_{p}h)$: integration by parts shows the only homogeneous smooth solution is a multiple of $f_0$, removed by normalization.