TY - JOUR A1 - Gómez-Nava, Luis A1 - Grossmann, Robert A1 - Hintsche, Marius A1 - Beta, Carsten A1 - Peruani, Fernando T1 - A novel approach to chemotaxis T2 - epl : a letters journal exploring the frontiers of physics N2 - Motivated by the observation of non-exponential run-time distributions of bacterial swimmers, we propose a minimal phenomenological model for taxis of active particles whose motion is controlled by an internal clock. The ticking of the clock depends on an external concentration field, e.g., a chemical substance. We demonstrate that these particles can detect concentration gradients and respond to them by moving up- or down-gradient depending on the clock design, albeit measurements of these fields are purely local in space and instantaneous in time. Altogether, our results open a new route in the study of directional navigation: we show that the use of a clock to control motility actions represents a generic and versatile toolbox to engineer behavioral responses to external cues, such as light, chemical, or temperature gradients. Y1 - 2020 UR - https://publishup.uni-potsdam.de/frontdoor/index/index/docId/59131 SN - 0295-5075 SN - 1286-4854 VL - 130 IS - 6 PB - IOP Publ. Ltd. CY - Bristol ER -