Year: 2020
Type: article
Abstract: Motivated by the dynamics of particles embedded in active gels, both in vitro and inside the cytoskeleton of living cells, we study an active generalization of the classical trap model. We demonstrate that activity leads to dramatic modifications in the diffusion compared to the thermal case: the mean square displacement becomes subdiffusive, spreading as a power law in time, when the trap depth distribution is a Gaussian and is slower than any power law when it is drawn from an exponential distribution. The results are derived for a simple, exactly solvable, case of harmonic traps. We then argue that the results are robust for more realistic trap shapes when the activity is strong.
Source: Physical Review Letters
Authors: Eric Woillez, Yariv Kafri, Nir S. Gov
Language: English
Subfield: Modeling and Simulation
Field: Mathematics
Domain: Physical Sciences
Open Access status: green
Award: G4983140743
OpenAlex ID: W2978024265