• DOI:10.1103/PhysRevE.90.030701
• Corpus ID: 6899314

Anomalous diffusion of self-propelled particles in directed random environments.

@article{Shaebani2014AnomalousDO,
  title={Anomalous diffusion of self-propelled particles in directed random environments.},
  author={M. Reza Shaebani and Zeinab Sadjadi and Igor M. Sokolov and Heiko Rieger and Ludger Santen},
  journal={Physical review. E, Statistical, nonlinear, and soft matter physics},
  year={2014},
  volume={90 3},
  pages={
          030701
        }
}

• M. R. Shaebani, Z. Sadjadi, +2 authors L. Santen
• Published 3 July 2014
• Mathematics
• Physical review. E, Statistical, nonlinear, and soft matter physics

We theoretically study the transport properties of self-propelled particles on complex structures, such as motor proteins on filament networks. A general master equation formalism is developed to investigate the persistent motion of individual random walkers, which enables us to identify the contributions of key parameters: the motor processivity, and the anisotropy and heterogeneity of the underlying network. We prove the existence of different dynamical regimes of anomalous motion, and that the crossover times between these regimes as well as the asymptotic diffusion coefficient can be increased by several orders of magnitude within biologically relevant control parameter ranges. In terms of motion in continuous space, the interplay between stepping strategy and persistency of the walker is established as a source of anomalous diffusion at short and intermediate time scales.