TY - JOUR A1 - Palyulin, Vladimir V. A1 - Chechkin, Aleksei V. A1 - Klages, Rainer A1 - Metzler, Ralf T1 - Search reliability and search efficiency of combined Levy-Brownian motion: long relocations mingled with thorough local exploration JF - Journal of physics : A, Mathematical and theoretical N2 - A combined dynamics consisting of Brownian motion and Levy flights is exhibited by a variety of biological systems performing search processes. Assessing the search reliability of ever locating the target and the search efficiency of doing so economically of such dynamics thus poses an important problem. Here we model this dynamics by a one-dimensional fractional Fokker-Planck equation combining unbiased Brownian motion and Levy flights. By solving this equation both analytically and numerically we show that the superposition of recurrent Brownian motion and Levy flights with stable exponent alpha < 1, by itself implying zero probability of hitting a point on a line, leads to transient motion with finite probability of hitting any point on the line. We present results for the exact dependence of the values of both the search reliability and the search efficiency on the distance between the starting and target positions as well as the choice of the scaling exponent a of the Levy flight component. KW - random search process KW - first passage KW - first arrival KW - Levy flights KW - Brownian motion Y1 - 2016 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1088/1751-8113/49/39/394002 SN - 1751-8113 SN - 1751-8121 VL - 49 SP - 2189 EP - 2193 PB - IOP Publ. Ltd. CY - Bristol ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Kruesemann, Henning A1 - Schwarzl, Richard A1 - Metzler, Ralf T1 - Ageing Scher-Montroll Transport JF - Transport in Porous Media N2 - We study the properties of ageing Scher-Montroll transport in terms of a biased subdiffusive continuous time random walk in which the waiting times between consecutive jumps of the charge carriers are distributed according to the power law probability with . As we show, the dynamical properties of the Scher-Montroll transport depend on the ageing time span between the initial preparation of the system and the start of the observation. The Scher-Montroll transport theory was originally shown to describe the photocurrent in amorphous solids in the presence of an external electric field, but it has since been used in many other fields of physical sciences, in particular also in the geophysical context for the description of the transport of tracer particles in subsurface aquifers. In the absence of ageing () the photocurrent of the classical Scher-Montroll model or the breakthrough curves in the groundwater context exhibit a crossover between two power law regimes in time with the scaling exponents and . In the presence of ageing a new power law regime and an initial plateau regime of the current emerge. We derive the different power law regimes and crossover times of the ageing Scher-Montroll transport and show excellent agreement with simulations of the process. Experimental data of ageing Scher-Montroll transport in polymeric semiconductors are shown to agree well with the predictions of our theory. KW - Anomalous diffusion KW - Ageing KW - Scher-Montroll transport Y1 - 2016 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1007/s11242-016-0686-y SN - 0169-3913 SN - 1573-1634 VL - 115 SP - 327 EP - 344 PB - Springer CY - New York ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Godec, Aljaz A1 - Metzler, Ralf T1 - Universal Proximity Effect in Target Search Kinetics in the Few-Encounter Limit JF - Physical review : X, Expanding access N2 - When does a diffusing particle reach its target for the first time? This first-passage time (FPT) problem is central to the kinetics of molecular reactions in chemistry and molecular biology. Here, we explain the behavior of smooth FPT densities, for which all moments are finite, and demonstrate universal yet generally non-Poissonian long-time asymptotics for a broad variety of transport processes. While Poisson-like asymptotics arise generically in the presence of an effective repulsion in the immediate vicinity of the target, a time-scale separation between direct and reflected indirect trajectories gives rise to a universal proximity effect: Direct paths, heading more or less straight from the point of release to the target, become typical and focused, with a narrow spread of the corresponding first-passage times. Conversely, statistically dominant indirect paths exploring the entire system tend to be massively dissimilar. The initial distance to the target particularly impacts gene regulatory or competitive stochastic processes, for which few binding events often determine the regulatory outcome. The proximity effect is independent of details of the transport, highlighting the robust character of the FPT features uncovered here. Y1 - 2016 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevX.6.041037 SN - 2160-3308 VL - 6 PB - American Physical Society CY - College Park ER - TY - JOUR A1 - de Carvalho, Sidney J. A1 - Metzler, Ralf A1 - Cherstvy, Andrey G. T1 - Critical adsorption of polyelectrolytes onto planar and convex highly charged surfaces BT - the nonlinear Poisson–Boltzmann approach JF - New journal of physics : the open-access journal for physics N2 - We study the adsorption–desorption transition of polyelectrolyte chains onto planar, cylindrical and spherical surfaces with arbitrarily high surface charge densities by massive Monte Carlo computer simulations. We examine in detail how the well known scaling relations for the threshold transition—demarcating the adsorbed and desorbed domains of a polyelectrolyte near weakly charged surfaces—are altered for highly charged interfaces. In virtue of high surface potentials and large surface charge densities, the Debye–Hückel approximation is often not feasible and the nonlinear Poisson–Boltzmann approach should be implemented. At low salt conditions, for instance, the electrostatic potential from the nonlinear Poisson–Boltzmann equation is smaller than the Debye–Hückel result, such that the required critical surface charge density for polyelectrolyte adsorption σc increases. The nonlinear relation between the surface charge density and electrostatic potential leads to a sharply increasing critical surface charge density with growing ionic strength, imposing an additional limit to the critical salt concentration above which no polyelectrolyte adsorption occurs at all. We contrast our simulations findings with the known scaling results for weak critical polyelectrolyte adsorption onto oppositely charged surfaces for the three standard geometries. Finally, we discuss some applications of our results for some physical–chemical and biophysical systems. KW - polyelectrolyte adsorption KW - electrostatic interactions KW - critical phenomena KW - Debye screening Y1 - 2016 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1088/1367-2630/18/8/083037 SN - 1367-2630 VL - 18 PB - IOP Publ. CY - London ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Bodrova, Anna S. A1 - Chechkin, Aleksei V. A1 - Cherstvy, Andrey G. A1 - Safdari, Hadiseh A1 - Sokolov, Igor M. A1 - Metzler, Ralf T1 - Underdamped scaled Brownian motion BT - (non-)existence of the overdamped limit in anomalous diffusion JF - Scientific reports N2 - It is quite generally assumed that the overdamped Langevin equation provides a quantitative description of the dynamics of a classical Brownian particle in the long time limit. We establish and investigate a paradigm anomalous diffusion process governed by an underdamped Langevin equation with an explicit time dependence of the system temperature and thus the diffusion and damping coefficients. We show that for this underdamped scaled Brownian motion (UDSBM) the overdamped limit fails to describe the long time behaviour of the system and may practically even not exist at all for a certain range of the parameter values. Thus persistent inertial effects play a non-negligible role even at significantly long times. From this study a general questions on the applicability of the overdamped limit to describe the long time motion of an anomalously diffusing particle arises, with profound consequences for the relevance of overdamped anomalous diffusion models. We elucidate our results in view of analytical and simulations results for the anomalous diffusion of particles in free cooling granular gases. Y1 - 2016 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1038/srep30520 SN - 2045-2322 VL - 6 PB - Nature Publishing Group CY - London ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Cherstvy, Andrey G. A1 - Metzler, Ralf T1 - Anomalous diffusion in time-fluctuating non-stationary diffusivity landscapes JF - Physical chemistry, chemical physics : PCCP ; a journal of European chemical societies N2 - We investigate the ensemble and time averaged mean squared displacements for particle diffusion in a simple model for disordered media by assuming that the local diffusivity is both fluctuating in time and has a deterministic average growth or decay in time. In this study we compare computer simulations of the stochastic Langevin equation for this random diffusion process with analytical results. We explore the regimes of normal Brownian motion as well as anomalous diffusion in the sub- and superdiffusive regimes. We also consider effects of the inertial term on the particle motion. The investigation of the resulting diffusion is performed for unconfined and confined motion. Y1 - 2016 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1039/C6CP03101C SN - 1463-9084 SN - 1463-9076 VL - 18 SP - 23840 EP - 23852 PB - RSC Publ. CY - Cambridge ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Ghosh, Surya K. A1 - Cherstvy, Andrey G. A1 - Petrov, Eugene P. A1 - Metzler, Ralf T1 - Interactions of rod-like particles on responsive elastic sheets JF - Soft matter N2 - What are the physical laws of the mutual interactions of objects bound to cell membranes, such as various membrane proteins or elongated virus particles? To rationalise this, we here investigate by extensive computer simulations mutual interactions of rod-like particles adsorbed on the surface of responsive elastic two-dimensional sheets. Specifically, we quantify sheet deformations as a response to adhesion of such filamentous particles. We demonstrate that tip-to-tip contacts of rods are favoured for relatively soft sheets, while side-by-side contacts are preferred for stiffer elastic substrates. These attractive orientation-dependent substrate-mediated interactions between the rod-like particles on responsive sheets can drive their aggregation and self-assembly. The optimal orientation of the membrane-bound rods is established via responding to the elastic energy profiles created around the particles. We unveil the phase diagramme of attractive–repulsive rod–rod interactions in the plane of their separation and mutual orientation. Applications of our results to other systems featuring membrane-associated particles are also discussed. Y1 - 2016 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1039/C6SM01522K SN - 1744-6848 SN - 1744-683X PB - RSC CY - London ER -