TY - JOUR A1 - Cherstvy, Andrey G. A1 - Safdari, Hadiseh A1 - Metzler, Ralf T1 - Anomalous diffusion, nonergodicity, and ageing for exponentially and logarithmically time-dependent diffusivity BT - striking differences for massive versus massless particles JF - Journal of physics. D, Applied physics N2 - We investigate a diffusion process with a time-dependent diffusion coefficient, both exponentially increasing and decreasing in time, D(t)=D-0(e +/- 2 alpha t). For this (hypothetical) nonstationary diffusion process we compute-both analytically and from extensive stochastic simulations-the behavior of the ensemble- and time-averaged mean-squared displacements (MSDs) of the particles, both in the over- and underdamped limits. Simple asymptotic relations derived for the short- and long-time behaviors are shown to be in excellent agreement with the results of simulations. The diffusive characteristics in the presence of ageing are also considered, with dramatic differences of the over- versus underdamped regime. Our results for D(t)=D-0(e +/- 2 alpha t) extend and generalize the class of diffusive systems obeying scaled Brownian motion featuring a power-law-like variation of the diffusivity with time, D(t) similar to t(alpha-1). We also examine the logarithmically increasing diffusivity, D(t)=D(0)log[t/tau(0)], as another fundamental functional dependence (in addition to the power-law and exponential) and as an example of diffusivity slowly varying in time. One of the main conclusions is that the behavior of the massive particles is predominantly ergodic, while weak ergodicity breaking is repeatedly found for the time-dependent diffusion of the massless particles at short times. The latter manifests itself in the nonequivalence of the (both nonaged and aged) MSD and the mean time-averaged MSD. The current findings are potentially applicable to a class of physical systems out of thermal equilibrium where a rapid increase or decrease of the particles' diffusivity is inherently realized. One biological system potentially featuring all three types of time-dependent diffusion (power-law-like, exponential, and logarithmic) is water diffusion in the brain tissues, as we thoroughly discuss in the end. KW - anomalous diffusion KW - scaled Brownian motion KW - stochastic processes KW - nonstationary diffusivity KW - water diffusion in the brain KW - nonergodicity Y1 - 2021 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1088/1361-6463/abdff0 SN - 0022-3727 SN - 1361-6463 VL - 54 IS - 19 PB - IOP Publ. Ltd. CY - Bristol ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Mutothya, Nicholas Mwilu A1 - Xu, Yong A1 - Li, Yongge A1 - Metzler, Ralf T1 - Characterising stochastic motion in heterogeneous media driven by coloured non-Gaussian noise JF - Journal of physics : A, Mathematical and theoretical N2 - We study the stochastic motion of a test particle in a heterogeneous medium in terms of a position dependent diffusion coefficient mimicking measured deterministic diffusivity gradients in biological cells or the inherent heterogeneity of geophysical systems. Compared to previous studies we here investigate the effect of the interplay of anomalous diffusion effected by position dependent diffusion coefficients and coloured non-Gaussian noise. The latter is chosen to be distributed according to Tsallis' q-distribution, representing a popular example for a non-extensive statistic. We obtain the ensemble and time averaged mean squared displacements for this generalised process and establish its non-ergodic properties as well as analyse the non-Gaussian nature of the associated displacement distribution. We consider both non-stratified and stratified environments. KW - diffusion KW - anomalous diffusion KW - non-extensive statistics KW - coloured KW - noise KW - heterogeneous diffusion process Y1 - 2021 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1088/1751-8121/abfba6 SN - 1751-8113 SN - 1751-8121 VL - 54 IS - 29 PB - IOP Publ. Ltd. CY - Bristol ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Xu, Pengbo A1 - Deng, Weihua A1 - Sandev, Trifce T1 - Levy walk with parameter dependent velocity BT - hermite polynomial approach and numerical simulation JF - Journal of physics : A, Mathematical and theoretical N2 - To analyze stochastic processes, one often uses integral transform (Fourier and Laplace) methods. However, for the time-space coupled cases, e.g. the Levy walk, sometimes the integral transform method may fail. Here we provide a Hermite polynomial expansion approach, being complementary to the integral transform method, to the Levy walk. Two approaches are compared for some already known results. We also consider the generalized Levy walk with parameter dependent velocity. Namely, we consider the Levy walk with velocity which depends on the walking length or on the duration of each step. Some interesting features of the generalized Levy walk are observed, including the special shapes of the probability density function, the first passage time distributions, and various diffusive behaviors of the mean squared displacement. KW - Hermite polynomial expansion KW - Levy walk KW - anomalous diffusion KW - parameter KW - dependent velocity Y1 - 2020 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1088/1751-8121/ab7420 SN - 1751-8113 SN - 1751-8121 VL - 53 IS - 11 PB - IOP Publ. Ltd. CY - Bristol ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Awad, Emad A1 - Metzler, Ralf T1 - Crossover dynamics from superdiffusion to subdiffusion BT - models and solutions JF - Fractional calculus and applied analysis : an international journal for theory and applications N2 - The Cattaneo or telegrapher's equation describes the crossover from initial ballistic to normal diffusion. Here we study and survey time-fractional generalisations of this equation that are shown to produce the crossover of the mean squared displacement from superdiffusion to subdiffusion. Conditional solutions are derived in terms of Fox H-functions and the dth-order moments as well as the diffusive flux of the different models are derived. Moreover, the concept of the distribution-like is proposed as an alternative to the probability density function. KW - Cattaneo equation KW - telegrapher's equation KW - crossover dynamics KW - fractional dynamic equations KW - anomalous diffusion KW - superdiffusion and KW - subdiffusion KW - Fox H-functions Y1 - 2020 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1515/fca-2020-0003 SN - 1311-0454 SN - 1314-2224 VL - 23 IS - 1 SP - 55 EP - 102 PB - De Gruyter CY - Berlin ; Boston ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Guggenberger, Tobias A1 - Chechkin, Aleksei V. A1 - Metzler, Ralf T1 - Fractional Brownian motion in superharmonic potentials and non-Boltzmann stationary distributions JF - Journal of physics : A, Mathematical and theoretical N2 - We study the stochastic motion of particles driven by long-range correlated fractional Gaussian noise (FGN) in a superharmonic external potential of the form U(x) proportional to x(2n) (n is an element of N). When the noise is considered to be external, the resulting overdamped motion is described by the non-Markovian Langevin equation for fractional Brownian motion. For this case we show the existence of long time, stationary probability density functions (PDFs) the shape of which strongly deviates from the naively expected Boltzmann PDF in the confining potential U(x). We analyse in detail the temporal approach to stationarity as well as the shape of the non-Boltzmann stationary PDF. A typical characteristic is that subdiffusive, antipersistent (with negative autocorrelation) motion tends to effect an accumulation of probability close to the origin as compared to the corresponding Boltzmann distribution while the opposite trend occurs for superdiffusive (persistent) motion. For this latter case this leads to distinct bimodal shapes of the PDF. This property is compared to a similar phenomenon observed for Markovian Levy flights in superharmonic potentials. We also demonstrate that the motion encoded in the fractional Langevin equation driven by FGN always relaxes to the Boltzmann distribution, as in this case the fluctuation-dissipation theorem is fulfilled. KW - anomalous diffusion KW - Boltzmann distribution KW - non-Gaussian distribution Y1 - 2021 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1088/1751-8121/ac019b SN - 1751-8113 SN - 1751-8121 VL - 54 IS - 29 PB - IOP Publ. Ltd. CY - Bristol ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Wang, Wei A1 - Cherstvy, Andrey G. A1 - Chechkin, Aleksei V. A1 - Thapa, Samudrajit A1 - Seno, Flavio A1 - Liu, Xianbin A1 - Metzler, Ralf T1 - Fractional Brownian motion with random diffusivity BT - emerging residual nonergodicity below the correlation time JF - Journal of physics : A, Mathematical and theoretical N2 - Numerous examples for a priori unexpected non-Gaussian behaviour for normal and anomalous diffusion have recently been reported in single-particle tracking experiments. Here, we address the case of non-Gaussian anomalous diffusion in terms of a random-diffusivity mechanism in the presence of power-law correlated fractional Gaussian noise. We study the ergodic properties of this model via examining the ensemble- and time-averaged mean-squared displacements as well as the ergodicity breaking parameter EB quantifying the trajectory-to-trajectory fluctuations of the latter. For long measurement times, interesting crossover behaviour is found as function of the correlation time tau characterising the diffusivity dynamics. We unveil that at short lag times the EB parameter reaches a universal plateau. The corresponding residual value of EB is shown to depend only on tau and the trajectory length. The EB parameter at long lag times, however, follows the same power-law scaling as for fractional Brownian motion. We also determine a corresponding plateau at short lag times for the discrete representation of fractional Brownian motion, absent in the continuous-time formulation. These analytical predictions are in excellent agreement with results of computer simulations of the underlying stochastic processes. Our findings can help distinguishing and categorising certain nonergodic and non-Gaussian features of particle displacements, as observed in recent single-particle tracking experiments. KW - stochastic processes KW - anomalous diffusion KW - fractional Brownian motion KW - diffusing diffusivity KW - weak ergodicity breaking Y1 - 2020 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1088/1751-8121/aba467 SN - 1751-8113 SN - 1751-8121 VL - 53 IS - 47 PB - IOP Publ. Ltd. CY - Bristol ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Metzler, Ralf T1 - Superstatistics and non-Gaussian diffusion JF - The European physical journal special topics N2 - Brownian motion and viscoelastic anomalous diffusion in homogeneous environments are intrinsically Gaussian processes. In a growing number of systems, however, non-Gaussian displacement distributions of these processes are being reported. The physical cause of the non-Gaussianity is typically seen in different forms of disorder. These include, for instance, imperfect "ensembles" of tracer particles, the presence of local variations of the tracer mobility in heteroegenous environments, or cases in which the speed or persistence of moving nematodes or cells are distributed. From a theoretical point of view stochastic descriptions based on distributed ("superstatistical") transport coefficients as well as time-dependent generalisations based on stochastic transport parameters with built-in finite correlation time are invoked. After a brief review of the history of Brownian motion and the famed Gaussian displacement distribution, we here provide a brief introduction to the phenomenon of non-Gaussianity and the stochastic modelling in terms of superstatistical and diffusing-diffusivity approaches. KW - Brownian diffusion KW - anomalous diffusion KW - dynamics KW - kinetic-theory KW - models KW - motion KW - nanoparticles KW - nonergodicity KW - statistics KW - subdiffusion Y1 - 2020 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1140/epjst/e2020-900210-x SN - 1951-6355 SN - 1951-6401 VL - 229 IS - 5 SP - 711 EP - 728 PB - Springer CY - Heidelberg ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Xu, Pengbo A1 - Zhou, Tian A1 - Metzler, Ralf A1 - Deng, Weihua T1 - Stochastic harmonic trapping of a Lévy walk BT - transport and first-passage dynamics under soft resetting strategies JF - New journal of physics : the open-access journal for physics / Deutsche Physikalische Gesellschaft ; IOP, Institute of Physics N2 - We introduce and study a Lévy walk (LW) model of particle spreading with a finite propagation speed combined with soft resets, stochastically occurring periods in which an harmonic external potential is switched on and forces the particle towards a specific position. Soft resets avoid instantaneous relocation of particles that in certain physical settings may be considered unphysical. Moreover, soft resets do not have a specific resetting point but lead the particle towards a resetting point by a restoring Hookean force. Depending on the exact choice for the LW waiting time density and the probability density of the periods when the harmonic potential is switched on, we demonstrate a rich emerging response behaviour including ballistic motion and superdiffusion. When the confinement periods of the soft-reset events are dominant, we observe a particle localisation with an associated non-equilibrium steady state. In this case the stationary particle probability density function turns out to acquire multimodal states. Our derivations are based on Markov chain ideas and LWs with multiple internal states, an approach that may be useful and flexible for the investigation of other generalised random walks with soft and hard resets. The spreading efficiency of soft-rest LWs is characterised by the first-passage time statistic. KW - diffusion KW - anomalous diffusion KW - stochastic resetting KW - Levy walks Y1 - 2022 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1088/1367-2630/ac5282 SN - 1367-2630 VL - 24 IS - 3 SP - 1 EP - 28 PB - Deutsche Physikalische Gesellschaft CY - Bad Honnef ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Sandev, Trifce A1 - Metzler, Ralf A1 - Chechkin, Aleksei V. T1 - From continuous time random walks to the generalized diffusion equation JF - Fractional calculus and applied analysis : an international journal for theory and applications N2 - We obtain a generalized diffusion equation in modified or Riemann-Liouville form from continuous time random walk theory. The waiting time probability density function and mean squared displacement for different forms of the equation are explicitly calculated. We show examples of generalized diffusion equations in normal or Caputo form that encode the same probability distribution functions as those obtained from the generalized diffusion equation in modified form. The obtained equations are general and many known fractional diffusion equations are included as special cases. KW - continuous time random walk (CTRW) KW - generalized diffusion equation KW - Mittag-Leffler functions KW - anomalous diffusion Y1 - 2018 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1515/fca-2018-0002 SN - 1311-0454 SN - 1314-2224 VL - 21 IS - 1 SP - 10 EP - 28 PB - De Gruyter CY - Berlin ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Vitali, Silvia A1 - Sposini, Vittoria A1 - Sliusarenko, Oleksii A1 - Paradisi, Paolo A1 - Castellani, Gastone A1 - Pagnini, Gianni T1 - Langevin equation in complex media and anomalous diffusion JF - Interface : journal of the Royal Society N2 - The problem of biological motion is a very intriguing and topical issue. Many efforts are being focused on the development of novel modelling approaches for the description of anomalous diffusion in biological systems, such as the very complex and heterogeneous cell environment. Nevertheless, many questions are still open, such as the joint manifestation of statistical features in agreement with different models that can also be somewhat alternative to each other, e.g. continuous time random walk and fractional Brownian motion. To overcome these limitations, we propose a stochastic diffusion model with additive noise and linear friction force (linear Langevin equation), thus involving the explicit modelling of velocity dynamics. The complexity of the medium is parametrized via a population of intensity parameters (relaxation time and diffusivity of velocity), thus introducing an additional randomness, in addition to white noise, in the particle's dynamics. We prove that, for proper distributions of these parameters, we can get both Gaussian anomalous diffusion, fractional diffusion and its generalizations. KW - anomalous diffusion KW - heterogeneous media KW - biological transport KW - Gaussian processes KW - space-time fractional diffusion equation KW - fractional Brownian motion Y1 - 2018 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1098/rsif.2018.0282 SN - 1742-5689 SN - 1742-5662 VL - 15 IS - 145 PB - Royal Society CY - London ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Sandev, Trifce A1 - Tomovski, Zivorad A1 - Dubbeldam, Johan L. A. A1 - Chechkin, Aleksei V. T1 - Generalized diffusion-wave equation with memory kernel JF - Journal of physics : A, Mathematical and theoretical N2 - We study generalized diffusion-wave equation in which the second order time derivative is replaced by an integro-differential operator. It yields time fractional and distributed order time fractional diffusion-wave equations as particular cases. We consider different memory kernels of the integro-differential operator, derive corresponding fundamental solutions, specify the conditions of their non-negativity and calculate the mean squared displacement for all cases. In particular, we introduce and study generalized diffusion-wave equations with a regularized Prabhakar derivative of single and distributed orders. The equations considered can be used for modeling the broad spectrum of anomalous diffusion processes and various transitions between different diffusion regimes. KW - diffusion-wave equation KW - Mittag-Leffler function KW - anomalous diffusion Y1 - 2018 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1088/1751-8121/aaefa3 SN - 1751-8113 SN - 1751-8121 VL - 52 IS - 1 PB - IOP Publ. Ltd. CY - Bristol ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Sliusarenko, Oleksii Yu A1 - Vitali, Silvia A1 - Sposini, Vittoria A1 - Paradisi, Paolo A1 - Chechkin, Aleksei V. A1 - Castellani, Gastone A1 - Pagnini, Gianni T1 - Finite-energy Levy-type motion through heterogeneous ensemble of Brownian particles JF - Journal of physics : A, Mathematical and theoretical N2 - Complex systems are known to display anomalous diffusion, whose signature is a space/time scaling x similar to t(delta) with delta not equal 1/2 in the probability density function (PDF). Anomalous diffusion can emerge jointly with both Gaussian, e.g. fractional Brownian motion, and power-law decaying distributions, e.g. Levy Flights or Levy Walks (LWs). Levy flights get anomalous scaling, but, being jumps of any size allowed even at short times, have infinite position variance, infinite energy and discontinuous paths. LWs, which are based on random trapping events, overcome these limitations: they resemble a Levy-type power-law distribution that is truncated in the large displacement range and have finite moments, finite energy and, even with discontinuous velocity, they are continuous. However, LWs do not take into account the role of strong heterogeneity in many complex systems, such as biological transport in the crowded cell environment. In this work we propose and discuss a model describing a heterogeneous ensemble of Brownian particles (HEBP). Velocity of each single particle obeys a standard underdamped Langevin equation for the velocity, with linear friction term and additive Gaussian noise. Each particle is characterized by its own relaxation time and velocity diffusivity. We show that, for proper distributions of relaxation time and velocity diffusivity, the HEBP resembles some LW statistical features, in particular power-law decaying PDF, long-range correlations and anomalous diffusion, at the same time keeping finite position moments and finite energy. The main differences between the HEBP model and two different LWs are investigated, finding that, even when both velocity and position PDFs are similar, they differ in four main aspects: (i) LWs are biscaling, while HEBP is monoscaling; (ii) a transition from anomalous (delta = 1/2) to normal (delta = 1/2) diffusion in the long-time regime is seen in the HEBP and not in LWs; (iii) the power-law index of the position PDF and the space/time diffusion scaling are independent in the HEBP, while they both depend on the scaling of the interevent time PDF in LWs; (iv) at variance with LWs, our HEBP model obeys a fluctuation-dissipation theorem. KW - anomalous diffusion KW - heterogeneous ensemble of Brownian particles KW - biological transport KW - Langevin equation KW - Gaussian processes KW - fractional diffusion KW - Levy walk Y1 - 2019 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1088/1751-8121/aafe90 SN - 1751-8113 SN - 1751-8121 VL - 52 IS - 9 PB - IOP Publ. Ltd. CY - Bristol ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Thapa, Samudrajit A1 - Wyłomańska, Agnieszka A1 - Sikora, Grzegorz A1 - Wagner, Caroline E. A1 - Krapf, Diego A1 - Kantz, Holger A1 - Chechkin, Aleksei V. A1 - Metzler, Ralf T1 - Leveraging large-deviation statistics to decipher the stochastic properties of measured trajectories JF - New Journal of Physics N2 - Extensive time-series encoding the position of particles such as viruses, vesicles, or individualproteins are routinely garnered insingle-particle tracking experiments or supercomputing studies.They contain vital clues on how viruses spread or drugs may be delivered in biological cells.Similar time-series are being recorded of stock values in financial markets and of climate data.Such time-series are most typically evaluated in terms of time-averaged mean-squareddisplacements (TAMSDs), which remain random variables for finite measurement times. Theirstatistical properties are different for differentphysical stochastic processes, thus allowing us toextract valuable information on the stochastic process itself. To exploit the full potential of thestatistical information encoded in measured time-series we here propose an easy-to-implementand computationally inexpensive new methodology, based on deviations of the TAMSD from itsensemble average counterpart. Specifically, we use the upper bound of these deviations forBrownian motion (BM) to check the applicability of this approach to simulated and real data sets.By comparing the probability of deviations fordifferent data sets, we demonstrate how thetheoretical bound for BM reveals additional information about observed stochastic processes. Weapply the large-deviation method to data sets of tracer beads tracked in aqueous solution, tracerbeads measured in mucin hydrogels, and of geographic surface temperature anomalies. Ouranalysis shows how the large-deviation properties can be efficiently used as a simple yet effectiveroutine test to reject the BM hypothesis and unveil relevant information on statistical propertiessuch as ergodicity breaking and short-time correlations. KW - diffusion KW - anomalous diffusion KW - large-deviation statistic KW - time-averaged mean squared displacement KW - Chebyshev inequality Y1 - 2020 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1088/1367-2630/abd50e SN - 1367-2630 VL - 23 PB - Dt. Physikalische Ges. ; IOP CY - Bad Honnef ; London ER - TY - THES A1 - Thapa, Samudrajit T1 - Deciphering anomalous diffusion in complex systems using Bayesian inference and large deviation theory N2 - The development of methods such as super-resolution microscopy (Nobel prize in Chemistry, 2014) and multi-scale computer modelling (Nobel prize in Chemistry, 2013) have provided scientists with powerful tools to study microscopic systems. Sub-micron particles or even fluorescently labelled single molecules can now be tracked for long times in a variety of systems such as living cells, biological membranes, colloidal solutions etc. at spatial and temporal resolutions previously inaccessible. Parallel to such single-particle tracking experiments, super-computing techniques enable simulations of large atomistic or coarse-grained systems such as biologically relevant membranes or proteins from picoseconds to seconds, generating large volume of data. These have led to an unprecedented rise in the number of reported cases of anomalous diffusion wherein the characteristic features of Brownian motion—namely linear growth of the mean squared displacement with time and the Gaussian form of the probability density function (PDF) to find a particle at a given position at some fixed time—are routinely violated. This presents a big challenge in identifying the underlying stochastic process and also estimating the corresponding parameters of the process to completely describe the observed behaviour. Finding the correct physical mechanism which leads to the observed dynamics is of paramount importance, for example, to understand the first-arrival time of transcription factors which govern gene regulation, or the survival probability of a pathogen in a biological cell post drug administration. Statistical Physics provides useful methods that can be applied to extract such vital information. This cumulative dissertation, based on five publications, focuses on the development, implementation and application of such tools with special emphasis on Bayesian inference and large deviation theory. Together with the implementation of Bayesian model comparison and parameter estimation methods for models of diffusion, complementary tools are developed based on different observables and large deviation theory to classify stochastic processes and gather pivotal information. Bayesian analysis of the data of micron-sized particles traced in mucin hydrogels at different pH conditions unveiled several interesting features and we gained insights into, for example, how in going from basic to acidic pH, the hydrogel becomes more heterogeneous and phase separation can set in, leading to observed non-ergodicity (non-equivalence of time and ensemble averages) and non-Gaussian PDF. With large deviation theory based analysis we could detect, for instance, non-Gaussianity in seeming Brownian diffusion of beads in aqueous solution, anisotropic motion of the beads in mucin at neutral pH conditions, and short-time correlations in climate data. Thus through the application of the developed methods to biological and meteorological datasets crucial information is garnered about the underlying stochastic processes and significant insights are obtained in understanding the physical nature of these systems. N2 - Die Entwicklung von Methoden wie der superauflösenden Mikroskopie (Nobelpreis für Chemie, 2014) und der Multiskalen-Computermodellierung (Nobelpreis für Chemie, 2013) hat Wis- senschaftlern mächtige Werkzeuge zur Untersuchung mikroskopischer Systeme zur Verfügung gestellt. Submikrometer Partikel und sogar einzelne fluoreszent markierte Moleküle können heute über lange Beobachtungszeiten in einer Vielzahl von Systemen, wie z.B. lebenden Zellen, biologischen Membranen und kolloidalen Suspensionen, mit bisher unerreichter räumlicher und zeitlicher Auflösung verfolgt werden. Neben solchen Einzelpartikelverfolgungsexperi- menten ermöglichen Supercomputer die Simulation großer atomistischer oder coarse-grained Systeme, wie z..B. biologisch relevante Membranen oder Proteine, über wenige Picosekunden bis hin zu einigen Sekunden, wobei große Datenmengen produziert werden. Diese haben zu einem beispiellosen Anstieg in der Zahl berichteter Fälle von anomaler Diffusion geführt, bei welcher die charakteristischen Eigenschaften der Brownschen Diffusion—nämlich das lineare Wachstum der mittleren quadratischen Verschiebung mit der Zeit und die Gaußsche Form der Wahrscheinlichkeitsdichtefunktion ein Partikel an einem gegebenen Ort und zu gegebener Zeit zu finden—verletzt sind. Dies stellt eine große Herausforderung bei der Identifizierung des zugrundeliegenden stochastischen Prozesses und der Schätzung der zugehörigen Prozess- parameter dar, was zur vollständigen Beschreibung des beobachteten Verhaltens nötig ist. Das Auffinden des korrekten physikalischen Mechanismus, welcher zum beobachteten Verhal- ten führt, ist von überragender Bedeutung, z.B. beim Verständnis der, die Genregulation steuernden, first-arrival time von Transkriptionsfaktoren oder der Überlebensfunktion eines Pathogens in einer biologischen Zelle nach Medikamentengabe. Die statistische Physik stellt nützliche Methoden bereit, die angewendet werden können, um solch wichtige Informationen zu erhalten. Der Schwerpunkt der vorliegenden, auf fünf Publikationen basierenden, kumulativen Dissertation liegt auf der Entwicklung, Implementierung und Anwendung solcher Methoden, mit einem besonderen Schwerpunkt auf der Bayesschen Inferenz und der Theorie der großen Abweichungen. Zusammen mit der Implementierung eines Bayesschen Modellvergleichs und Methoden zur Parameterschätzung für Diffusionsmodelle werden ergänzende Methoden en- twickelt, welche auf unterschiedliche Observablen und der Theorie der großen Abweichungen basieren, um stochastische Prozesse zu klassifizieren und wichtige Informationen zu erhalten. Die Bayessche Analyse der Bewegungsdaten von Mikrometerpartikeln, welche in Mucin- hydrogelen mit verschiedenen pH-Werten verfolgt wurden, enthüllte mehrere interessante Eigenschaften und wir haben z.B. Einsichten darüber gewonnen, wie der Übergang von basischen zu sauren pH-Werten die Heterogenität des Hydrogels erhöht und Phasentrennung einsetzen kann, was zur beobachteten Nicht-Ergodizität (Inäquivalenz von Zeit- und En- semblemittelwert) und nicht-Gaußscher Wahrscheinlichkeitsdichte führt. Mit einer auf der Theorie der großen Abweichungen basierenden Analyse konnten wir, z.B., nicht-Gaußsches Verhalten bei der scheinbaren Brownschen Diffusion von Partikeln in wässriger Lösung, anisotrope Bewegung von Partikeln in Mucin bei neutralem pH-Wert und Kurzzeitkorrela- tionen in Klimadaten detektieren. Folglich werden durch die Anwendung der entwickelten Methoden auf biologische und meteorologische Daten entscheidende Informationen über die zugrundeliegenden stochastischen Prozesse gesammelt und bedeutende Erkenntnisse für das Verständnis der Eigenschaften dieser Systeme erhalten. KW - anomalous diffusion KW - Bayesian inference KW - large deviation theory KW - statistical physics Y1 - 2020 ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Wang, Wei A1 - Seno, Flavio A1 - Sokolov, Igor M. A1 - Chechkin, Aleksei V. A1 - Metzler, Ralf T1 - Unexpected crossovers in correlated random-diffusivity processes JF - New Journal of Physics N2 - The passive and active motion of micron-sized tracer particles in crowded liquids and inside living biological cells is ubiquitously characterised by 'viscoelastic' anomalous diffusion, in which the increments of the motion feature long-ranged negative and positive correlations. While viscoelastic anomalous diffusion is typically modelled by a Gaussian process with correlated increments, so-called fractional Gaussian noise, an increasing number of systems are reported, in which viscoelastic anomalous diffusion is paired with non-Gaussian displacement distributions. Following recent advances in Brownian yet non-Gaussian diffusion we here introduce and discuss several possible versions of random-diffusivity models with long-ranged correlations. While all these models show a crossover from non-Gaussian to Gaussian distributions beyond some correlation time, their mean squared displacements exhibit strikingly different behaviours: depending on the model crossovers from anomalous to normal diffusion are observed, as well as a priori unexpected dependencies of the effective diffusion coefficient on the correlation exponent. Our observations of the non-universality of random-diffusivity viscoelastic anomalous diffusion are important for the analysis of experiments and a better understanding of the physical origins of 'viscoelastic yet non-Gaussian' diffusion. KW - diffusion KW - anomalous diffusion KW - non-Gaussianity KW - fractional Brownian motion Y1 - 2020 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1088/1367-2630/aba390 SN - 1367-2630 VL - 22 PB - Dt. Physikalische Ges. CY - Bad Honnef ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Sandev, T. A1 - Iomin, Alexander A1 - Kantz, Holger A1 - Metzler, Ralf A1 - Chechkin, Aleksei V. T1 - Comb Model with Slow and Ultraslow Diffusion JF - Mathematical modelling of natural phenomena N2 - We consider a generalized diffusion equation in two dimensions for modeling diffusion on a comb-like structures. We analyze the probability distribution functions and we derive the mean squared displacement in x and y directions. Different forms of the memory kernels (Dirac delta, power-law, and distributed order) are considered. It is shown that anomalous diffusion may occur along both x and y directions. Ultraslow diffusion and some more general diffusive processes are observed as well. We give the corresponding continuous time random walk model for the considered two dimensional diffusion-like equation on a comb, and we derive the probability distribution functions which subordinate the process governed by this equation to the Wiener process. KW - comb-like model KW - anomalous diffusion KW - mean squared displacement KW - probability density function Y1 - 2016 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1051/mmnp/201611302 SN - 0973-5348 SN - 1760-6101 VL - 11 SP - 18 EP - 33 PB - EDP Sciences CY - Les Ulis ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Ghosh, Surya K. A1 - Cherstvy, Andrey G. A1 - Grebenkov, Denis S. A1 - Metzler, Ralf T1 - Anomalous, non-Gaussian tracer diffusion in crowded two-dimensional environments JF - NEW JOURNAL OF PHYSICS N2 - A topic of intense current investigation pursues the question of how the highly crowded environment of biological cells affects the dynamic properties of passively diffusing particles. Motivated by recent experiments we report results of extensive simulations of the motion of a finite sized tracer particle in a heterogeneously crowded environment made up of quenched distributions of monodisperse crowders of varying sizes in finite circular two-dimensional domains. For given spatial distributions of monodisperse crowders we demonstrate how anomalous diffusion with strongly non-Gaussian features arises in this model system. We investigate both biologically relevant situations of particles released either at the surface of an inner domain or at the outer boundary, exhibiting distinctly different features of the observed anomalous diffusion for heterogeneous distributions of crowders. Specifically we reveal an asymmetric spreading of tracers even at moderate crowding. In addition to the mean squared displacement (MSD) and local diffusion exponent we investigate the magnitude and the amplitude scatter of the time averaged MSD of individual tracer trajectories, the non-Gaussianity parameter, and the van Hove correlation function. We also quantify how the average tracer diffusivity varies with the position in the domain with a heterogeneous radial distribution of crowders and examine the behaviour of the survival probability and the dynamics of the tracer survival probability. Inter alia, the systems we investigate are related to the passive transport of lipid molecules and proteins in two-dimensional crowded membranes or the motion in colloidal solutions or emulsions in effectively two-dimensional geometries, as well as inside supercrowded, surface adhered cells. KW - anomalous diffusion KW - crowded fluids KW - stochastic processes Y1 - 2016 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1088/1367-2630/18/1/013027 SN - 1367-2630 VL - 18 PB - IOP Publ. Ltd. CY - Bristol ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Guggenberger, Tobias A1 - Pagnini, Gianni A1 - Vojta, Thomas A1 - Metzler, Ralf T1 - Fractional Brownian motion in a finite interval BT - correlations effect depletion or accretion zones of particles near boundaries JF - New Journal of Physics N2 - Fractional Brownian motion (FBM) is a Gaussian stochastic process with stationary, long-time correlated increments and is frequently used to model anomalous diffusion processes. We study numerically FBM confined to a finite interval with reflecting boundary conditions. The probability density function of this reflected FBM at long times converges to a stationary distribution showing distinct deviations from the fully flat distribution of amplitude 1/L in an interval of length L found for reflected normal Brownian motion. While for superdiffusion, corresponding to a mean squared displacement (MSD) 〈X² (t)〉 ⋍ tᵅ with 1 < α < 2, the probability density function is lowered in the centre of the interval and rises towards the boundaries, for subdiffusion (0 < α < 1) this behaviour is reversed and the particle density is depleted close to the boundaries. The MSD in these cases at long times converges to a stationary value, which is, remarkably, monotonically increasing with the anomalous diffusion exponent α. Our a priori surprising results may have interesting consequences for the application of FBM for processes such as molecule or tracer diffusion in the confines of living biological cells or organelles, or other viscoelastic environments such as dense liquids in microfluidic chambers. KW - anomalous diffusion KW - fractional Brownian motion KW - reflecting boundary conditions Y1 - 2019 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1088/1367-2630/ab075f SN - 1367-2630 VL - 21 PB - Deutsche Physikalische Gesellschaft ; IOP, Institute of Physics CY - Bad Honnef und London ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Sposini, Vittoria A1 - Metzler, Ralf A1 - Oshanin, Gleb T1 - Single-trajectory spectral analysis of scaled Brownian motion JF - New Journal of Physics N2 - Astandard approach to study time-dependent stochastic processes is the power spectral density (PSD), an ensemble-averaged property defined as the Fourier transform of the autocorrelation function of the process in the asymptotic limit of long observation times, T → ∞. In many experimental situations one is able to garner only relatively few stochastic time series of finite T, such that practically neither an ensemble average nor the asymptotic limit T → ∞ can be achieved. To accommodate for a meaningful analysis of such finite-length data we here develop the framework of single-trajectory spectral analysis for one of the standard models of anomalous diffusion, scaled Brownian motion.Wedemonstrate that the frequency dependence of the single-trajectory PSD is exactly the same as for standard Brownian motion, which may lead one to the erroneous conclusion that the observed motion is normal-diffusive. However, a distinctive feature is shown to be provided by the explicit dependence on the measurement time T, and this ageing phenomenon can be used to deduce the anomalous diffusion exponent.Wealso compare our results to the single-trajectory PSD behaviour of another standard anomalous diffusion process, fractional Brownian motion, and work out the commonalities and differences. Our results represent an important step in establishing singletrajectory PSDs as an alternative (or complement) to analyses based on the time-averaged mean squared displacement. KW - diffusion KW - anomalous diffusion KW - power spectral analysis KW - single trajectory analysis Y1 - 2019 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1088/1367-2630/ab2f52 SN - 1367-2630 VL - 21 PB - Deutsche Physikalische Gesellschaft ; IOP, Institute of Physics CY - Bad Honnef und London ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Ślęzak, Jakub A1 - Metzler, Ralf A1 - Magdziarz, Marcin T1 - Codifference can detect ergodicity breaking and non-Gaussianity JF - New Journal of Physics N2 - We show that the codifference is a useful tool in studying the ergodicity breaking and non-Gaussianity properties of stochastic time series. While the codifference is a measure of dependence that was previously studied mainly in the context of stable processes, we here extend its range of applicability to random-parameter and diffusing-diffusivity models which are important in contemporary physics, biology and financial engineering. We prove that the codifference detects forms of dependence and ergodicity breaking which are not visible from analysing the covariance and correlation functions. We also discuss a related measure of dispersion, which is a nonlinear analogue of the mean squared displacement. KW - diffusion KW - stochastic time series KW - anomalous diffusion Y1 - 2019 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1088/1367-2630/ab13f3 SN - 1367-2630 VL - 21 PB - Deutsche Physikalische Gesellschaft CY - Bad Honnef ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Molina-Garcia, Daniel A1 - Sandev, Trifce A1 - Safdari, Hadiseh A1 - Pagnini, Gianni A1 - Chechkin, Aleksei V. A1 - Metzler, Ralf T1 - Crossover from anomalous to normal diffusion BT - truncated power-law noise correlations and applications to dynamics in lipid bilayers JF - New Journal of Physics N2 - Abstract The emerging diffusive dynamics in many complex systems show a characteristic crossover behaviour from anomalous to normal diffusion which is otherwise fitted by two independent power-laws. A prominent example for a subdiffusive–diffusive crossover are viscoelastic systems such as lipid bilayer membranes, while superdiffusive–diffusive crossovers occur in systems of actively moving biological cells. We here consider the general dynamics of a stochastic particle driven by so-called tempered fractional Gaussian noise, that is noise with Gaussian amplitude and power-law correlations, which are cut off at some mesoscopic time scale. Concretely we consider such noise with built-in exponential or power-law tempering, driving an overdamped Langevin equation (fractional Brownian motion) and fractional Langevin equation motion. We derive explicit expressions for the mean squared displacement and correlation functions, including different shapes of the crossover behaviour depending on the concrete tempering, and discuss the physical meaning of the tempering. In the case of power-law tempering we also find a crossover behaviour from faster to slower superdiffusion and slower to faster subdiffusion. As a direct application of our model we demonstrate that the obtained dynamics quantitatively describes the subdiffusion–diffusion and subdiffusion–subdiffusion crossover in lipid bilayer systems. We also show that a model of tempered fractional Brownian motion recently proposed by Sabzikar and Meerschaert leads to physically very different behaviour with a seemingly paradoxical ballistic long time scaling. KW - anomalous diffusion KW - truncated power-law correlated noise KW - lipid bilayer membrane dynamics Y1 - 2018 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1088/1367-2630/aae4b2 SN - 1367-2630 VL - 20 PB - IOP Publishing Ltd CY - London und Bad Honnef ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Ślęzak, Jakub A1 - Metzler, Ralf A1 - Magdziarz, Marcin T1 - Superstatistical generalised Langevin equation BT - non-Gaussian viscoelastic anomalous diffusion JF - New Journal of Physics N2 - Recent advances in single particle tracking and supercomputing techniques demonstrate the emergence of normal or anomalous, viscoelastic diffusion in conjunction with non-Gaussian distributions in soft, biological, and active matter systems. We here formulate a stochastic model based on a generalised Langevin equation in which non-Gaussian shapes of the probability density function and normal or anomalous diffusion have a common origin, namely a random parametrisation of the stochastic force. We perform a detailed analysis demonstrating how various types of parameter distributions for the memory kernel result in exponential, power law, or power-log law tails of the memory functions. The studied system is also shown to exhibit a further unusual property: the velocity has a Gaussian one point probability density but non-Gaussian joint distributions. This behaviour is reflected in the relaxation from a Gaussian to a non-Gaussian distribution observed for the position variable. We show that our theoretical results are in excellent agreement with stochastic simulations. KW - anomalous diffusion KW - generalised langevin equation KW - superstatistics KW - non-Gaussian diffusion Y1 - 2018 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1088/1367-2630/aaa3d4 SN - 1367-2630 VL - 20 IS - 023026 SP - 1 EP - 25 PB - Deutsche Physikalische Gesellschaft / Institute of Physics CY - Bad Honnef und London ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Bodrova, Anna S. A1 - Chechkin, Aleksei V. A1 - Cherstvy, Andrey G. A1 - Metzler, Ralf T1 - Ultraslow scaled Brownian motion JF - New journal of physics : the open-access journal for physics N2 - We define and study in detail utraslow scaled Brownian motion (USBM) characterized by a time dependent diffusion coefficient of the form D(t) similar or equal to 1/t. For unconfined motion the mean squared displacement (MSD) of USBM exhibits an ultraslow, logarithmic growth as function of time, in contrast to the conventional scaled Brownian motion. In a harmonic potential the MSD of USBM does not saturate but asymptotically decays inverse-proportionally to time, reflecting the highly non-stationary character of the process. We show that the process is weakly non-ergodic in the sense that the time averaged MSD does not converge to the regular MSD even at long times, and for unconfined motion combines a linear lag time dependence with a logarithmic term. The weakly non-ergodic behaviour is quantified in terms of the ergodicity breaking parameter. The USBM process is also shown to be ageing: observables of the system depend on the time gap between initiation of the test particle and start of the measurement of its motion. Our analytical results are shown to agree excellently with extensive computer simulations. KW - anomalous diffusion KW - stochastic processes KW - ageing Y1 - 2015 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1088/1367-2630/17/6/063038 SN - 1367-2630 VL - 17 PB - IOP Publ. Ltd. CY - Bristol ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Dieterich, Peter A1 - Klages, Rainer A1 - Chechkin, Aleksei V. T1 - Fluctuation relations for anomalous dynamics generated by time-fractional Fokker-Planck equations JF - New journal of physics : the open-access journal for physics N2 - Anomalous dynamics characterized by non-Gaussian probability distributions (PDFs) and/or temporal long-range correlations can cause subtle modifications of conventional fluctuation relations (FRs). As prototypes we study three variants of a generic time-fractional Fokker-Planck equation with constant force. Type A generates superdiffusion, type B subdiffusion and type C both super-and subdiffusion depending on parameter variation. Furthermore type C obeys a fluctuation-dissipation relation whereas A and B do not. We calculate analytically the position PDFs for all three cases and explore numerically their strongly non-Gaussian shapes. While for type C we obtain the conventional transient work FR, type A and type B both yield deviations by featuring a coefficient that depends on time and by a nonlinear dependence on the work. We discuss possible applications of these types of dynamics and FRs to experiments. KW - fluctuation relations KW - anomalous diffusion KW - stochastic processes KW - stochastic thermodynamics KW - Fokker-Planck equations Y1 - 2015 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1088/1367-2630/17/7/075004 SN - 1367-2630 VL - 17 PB - IOP Publ. Ltd. CY - Bristol ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Krüsemann, Henning A1 - Godec, Aljaz A1 - Metzler, Ralf T1 - Ageing first passage time density in continuous time random walks and quenched energy landscapes JF - Journal of physics : A, Mathematical and theoretical N2 - We study the first passage dynamics of an ageing stochastic process in the continuous time random walk (CTRW) framework. In such CTRW processes the test particle performs a random walk, in which successive steps are separated by random waiting times distributed in terms of the waiting time probability density function Psi (t) similar or equal to t(-1-alpha) (0 <= alpha <= 2). An ageing stochastic process is defined by the explicit dependence of its dynamic quantities on the ageing time t(a), the time elapsed between its preparation and the start of the observation. Subdiffusive ageing CTRWs with 0 < alpha < 1 describe systems such as charge carriers in amorphous semiconducters, tracer dispersion in geological and biological systems, or the dynamics of blinking quantum dots. We derive the exact forms of the first passage time density for an ageing subdiffusive CTRW in the semi-infinite, confined, and biased case, finding different scaling regimes for weakly, intermediately, and strongly aged systems: these regimes, with different scaling laws, are also found when the scaling exponent is in the range 1 < alpha < 2, for sufficiently long ta. We compare our results with the ageing motion of a test particle in a quenched energy landscape. We test our theoretical results in the quenched landscape against simulations: only when the bias is strong enough, the correlations from returning to previously visited sites become insignificant and the results approach the ageing CTRW results. With small bias or without bias, the ageing effects disappear and a change in the exponent compared to the case of a completely annealed landscape can be found, reflecting the build-up of correlations in the quenched landscape. KW - first passage KW - random walks KW - anomalous diffusion Y1 - 2015 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1088/1751-8113/48/28/285001 SN - 1751-8113 SN - 1751-8121 VL - 48 IS - 28 PB - IOP Publ. Ltd. CY - Bristol ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Sandev, Trifce A1 - Chechkin, Aleksei V. A1 - Kantz, Holger A1 - Metzler, Ralf T1 - Diffusion and fokker-planck-smoluchowski equations with generalized memory kernel JF - Fractional calculus and applied analysis : an international journal for theory and applications N2 - We consider anomalous stochastic processes based on the renewal continuous time random walk model with different forms for the probability density of waiting times between individual jumps. In the corresponding continuum limit we derive the generalized diffusion and Fokker-Planck-Smoluchowski equations with the corresponding memory kernels. We calculate the qth order moments in the unbiased and biased cases, and demonstrate that the generalized Einstein relation for the considered dynamics remains valid. The relaxation of modes in the case of an external harmonic potential and the convergence of the mean squared displacement to the thermal plateau are analyzed. KW - continuous time random walk (CTRW) KW - Fokker-Planck-Smoluchowski equation KW - Mittag-Leffler functions KW - anomalous diffusion KW - multi-scaling Y1 - 2015 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1515/fca-2015-0059 SN - 1311-0454 SN - 1314-2224 VL - 18 IS - 4 SP - 1006 EP - 1038 PB - De Gruyter CY - Berlin ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Safdari, Hadiseh A1 - Cherstvy, Andrey G. A1 - Chechkin, Aleksei V. A1 - Thiel, Felix A1 - Sokolov, Igor M. A1 - Metzler, Ralf T1 - Quantifying the non-ergodicity of scaled Brownian motion JF - Journal of physics : A, Mathematical and theoretical N2 - We examine the non-ergodic properties of scaled Brownian motion (SBM), a non-stationary stochastic process with a time dependent diffusivity of the form D(t) similar or equal to t(alpha-1). We compute the ergodicity breaking parameter EB in the entire range of scaling exponents a, both analytically and via extensive computer simulations of the stochastic Langevin equation. We demonstrate that in the limit of long trajectory lengths T and short lag times Delta the EB parameter as function of the scaling exponent a has no divergence at alpha - 1/2 and present the asymptotes for EB in different limits. We generalize the analytical and simulations results for the time averaged and ergodic properties of SBM in the presence of ageing, that is, when the observation of the system starts only a finite time span after its initiation. The approach developed here for the calculation of the higher time averaged moments of the particle displacement can be applied to derive the ergodic properties of other stochastic processes such as fractional Brownian motion. KW - scaled Brownian motion KW - anomalous diffusion KW - ageing Y1 - 2015 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1088/1751-8113/48/37/375002 SN - 1751-8113 SN - 1751-8121 VL - 48 IS - 37 PB - IOP Publ. Ltd. CY - Bristol ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Shin, Jaeoh A1 - Cherstvy, Andrey G. A1 - Metzler, Ralf T1 - Self-subdiffusion in solutions of star-shaped crowders: non-monotonic effects of inter-particle interactions JF - New journal of physics : the open-access journal for physics N2 - We examine by extensive computer simulations the self-diffusion of anisotropic star-like particles in crowded two-dimensional solutions. We investigate the implications of the area coverage fraction phi of the crowders and the crowder-crowder adhesion properties on the regime of transient anomalous diffusion. We systematically compute the mean squared displacement (MSD) of the particles, their time averaged MSD, and the effective diffusion coefficient. The diffusion is ergodic in the limit of long traces, such that the mean time averaged MSD converges towards the ensemble averaged MSD, and features a small residual amplitude spread of the time averaged MSD from individual trajectories. At intermediate time scales, we quantify the anomalous diffusion in the system. Also, we show that the translational-but not rotational-diffusivity of the particles Dis a nonmonotonic function of the attraction strength between them. Both diffusion coefficients decrease as the power law D(phi) similar to (1 - phi/phi*)(2 ... 2.4) with the area fraction phi occupied by the crowders and the critical value phi*. Our results might be applicable to rationalising the experimental observations of non-Brownian diffusion for a number of standard macromolecular crowders used in vitro to mimic the cytoplasmic conditions of living cells. KW - anomalous diffusion KW - crowded fluids KW - stochastic processes Y1 - 2015 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1088/1367-2630/17/11/113028 SN - 1367-2630 VL - 17 PB - IOP Publ. Ltd. CY - Bristol ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Palyulin, Vladimir V. A1 - Metzler, Ralf T1 - Speeding up the first-passage for subdiffusion by introducing a finite potential barrier JF - Journal of physics : A, Mathematical and theoretical N2 - We show that for a subdiffusive continuous time random walk with scale-free waiting time distribution the first-passage dynamics on a finite interval can be optimized by introduction of a piecewise linear potential barrier. Analytical results for the survival probability and first-passage density based on the fractional Fokker-Planck equation are shown to agree well with Monte Carlo simulations results. As an application we discuss an improved design for efficient translocation of gradient copolymers compared to homopolymer translocation in a quasi-equilibrium approximation. KW - first passage KW - anomalous diffusion KW - potential landscape KW - polymer translocation Y1 - 2014 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1088/1751-8113/47/3/032002 SN - 1751-8113 SN - 1751-8121 VL - 47 IS - 3 PB - IOP Publ. Ltd. CY - Bristol ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Godec, Aljaz A1 - Bauer, Maximilian A1 - Metzler, Ralf T1 - Collective dynamics effect transient subdiffusion of inert tracers in flexible gel networks JF - New journal of physics : the open-access journal for physics N2 - Based on extensive Brownian dynamics simulations we study the thermal motion of a tracer bead in a cross-linked, flexible gel in the limit when the tracer particle size is comparable to or even larger than the equilibrium mesh size of the gel. The analysis of long individual trajectories of the tracer demonstrates the existence of pronounced transient anomalous diffusion. From the time averaged mean squared displacement and the time averaged van Hove correlation functions we elucidate the many-body origin of the non-Brownian tracer bead dynamics. Our results shed new light onto the ongoing debate over the physical origin of steric tracer interactions with structured environments. KW - anomalous diffusion KW - gel network KW - van Hove correlation Y1 - 2014 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1088/1367-2630/16/9/092002 SN - 1367-2630 VL - 16 PB - IOP Publ. Ltd. CY - Bristol ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Cherstvy, Andrey G. A1 - Chechkin, Aleksei V. A1 - Metzler, Ralf T1 - Ageing and confinement in non-ergodic heterogeneous diffusion processes JF - Journal of physics : A, Mathematical and theoretical N2 - We study the effects of ageing-the time delay between initiation of the physical process at t = 0 and start of observation at some time t(a) > 0-and spatial confinement on the properties of heterogeneous diffusion processes (HDPs) with deterministic power-law space-dependent diffusivities, D(x) = D-0 vertical bar x vertical bar(alpha). From analysis of the ensemble and time averaged mean squared displacements and the ergodicity breaking parameter quantifying the inherent degree of irreproducibility of individual realizations of the HDP we obtain striking similarities to ageing subdiffusive continuous time random walks with scale-free waiting time distributions. We also explore how both processes can be distinguished. For confined HDPs we study the long-time saturation of the ensemble and time averaged particle displacements as well as the magnitude of the inherent scatter of time averaged displacements and contrast the outcomes to the results known for other anomalous diffusion processes under confinement. KW - stochastic processes KW - anomalous diffusion KW - ageing KW - weak ergodicity breaking Y1 - 2014 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1088/1751-8113/47/48/485002 SN - 1751-8113 SN - 1751-8121 VL - 47 IS - 48 PB - IOP Publ. Ltd. CY - Bristol ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Godec, Aljaz A1 - Chechkin, Aleksei V. A1 - Barkai, Eli A1 - Kantz, Holger A1 - Metzler, Ralf T1 - Localisation and universal fluctuations in ultraslow diffusion processes JF - Journal of physics : A, Mathematical and theoretical N2 - We study ultraslow diffusion processes with logarithmic mean squared displacement (MSD) < x(2)(t)> similar or equal to log(gamma)t. Comparison of annealed (renewal) continuous time random walks (CTRWs) with logarithmic waiting time distribution psi(tau) similar or equal to 1/(tau log(1+gamma)tau) and Sinai diffusion in quenched random landscapes reveals striking similarities, despite the great differences in their physical nature. In particular, they exhibit a weakly non-ergodic disparity of the time-averaged and ensemble-averaged MSDs. Remarkably, for the CTRW we observe that the fluctuations of time averages become universal, with an exponential suppression of mobile trajectories. We discuss the fundamental connection between the Golosov localization effect and non-ergodicity in the sense of the disparity between ensemble-averaged MSD and time-averaged MSD. KW - Sinai diffusion KW - anomalous diffusion KW - quenched energy landscape Y1 - 2014 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1088/1751-8113/47/49/492002 SN - 1751-8113 SN - 1751-8121 VL - 47 IS - 49 PB - IOP Publ. Ltd. CY - Bristol ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Sandev, Trifce A1 - Metzler, Ralf A1 - Tomovski, Zivorad T1 - Velocity and displacement correlation functions for fractional generalized Langevin equations JF - Fractional calculus and applied analysis : an international journal for theory and applications N2 - We study analytically a generalized fractional Langevin equation. General formulas for calculation of variances and the mean square displacement are derived. Cases with a three parameter Mittag-Leffler frictional memory kernel are considered. Exact results in terms of the Mittag-Leffler type functions for the relaxation functions, average velocity and average particle displacement are obtained. The mean square displacement and variances are investigated analytically. Asymptotic behaviors of the particle in the short and long time limit are found. The model considered in this paper may be used for modeling anomalous diffusive processes in complex media including phenomena similar to single file diffusion or possible generalizations thereof. We show the importance of the initial conditions on the anomalous diffusive behavior of the particle. KW - fractional generalized Langevin equation KW - frictional memory kernel KW - variances KW - mean square displacement KW - anomalous diffusion Y1 - 2012 U6 - https://doi.org/10.2478/s13540-012-0031-2 SN - 1311-0454 VL - 15 IS - 3 SP - 426 EP - 450 PB - Versita CY - Warsaw ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Chechkin, Aleksei V. A1 - Zaid, I. M. A1 - Lomholt, M. A. A1 - Sokolov, Igor M. A1 - Metzler, Ralf T1 - Bulk-mediated surface diffusion on a cylinder in the fast exchange limit JF - Mathematical modelling of natural phenomena N2 - In various biological systems and small scale technological applications particles transiently bind to a cylindrical surface. Upon unbinding the particles diffuse in the vicinal bulk before rebinding to the surface. Such bulk-mediated excursions give rise to an effective surface translation, for which we here derive and discuss the dynamic equations, including additional surface diffusion. We discuss the time evolution of the number of surface-bound particles, the effective surface mean squared displacement, and the surface propagator. In particular, we observe sub- and superdiffusive regimes. A plateau of the surface mean-squared displacement reflects a stalling of the surface diffusion at longer times. Finally, the corresponding first passage problem for the cylindrical geometry is analysed. KW - Bulk-mediated diffusion KW - anomalous diffusion KW - Levy flights KW - stochastic processes Y1 - 2013 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1051/mmnp/20138208 SN - 0973-5348 VL - 8 IS - 2 SP - 114 EP - 126 PB - EDP Sciences CY - Les Ulis ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Metzler, Ralf A1 - Cherstvy, Andrey G. A1 - Chechkin, Aleksei V. A1 - Bodrova, Anna S. T1 - Ultraslow scaled Brownian motion JF - New journal of physics : the open-access journal for physics N2 - We define and study in detail utraslow scaled Brownian motion (USBM) characterized by a time dependent diffusion coefficient of the form . For unconfined motion the mean squared displacement (MSD) of USBM exhibits an ultraslow, logarithmic growth as function of time, in contrast to the conventional scaled Brownian motion. In a harmonic potential the MSD of USBM does not saturate but asymptotically decays inverse-proportionally to time, reflecting the highly non-stationary character of the process. We show that the process is weakly non-ergodic in the sense that the time averaged MSD does not converge to the regular MSD even at long times, and for unconfined motion combines a linear lag time dependence with a logarithmic term. The weakly non-ergodic behaviour is quantified in terms of the ergodicity breaking parameter. The USBM process is also shown to be ageing: observables of the system depend on the time gap between initiation of the test particle and start of the measurement of its motion. Our analytical results are shown to agree excellently with extensive computer simulations. KW - anomalous diffusion KW - stochastic processes KW - ageing Y1 - 2015 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1088/1367-2630/17/6/063038 SN - 1367-2630 VL - 17 IS - 063038 PB - Dt. Physikalische Ges., IOP CY - Bad Honnef, London ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Ghosh, Surya K. A1 - Cherstvy, Andrey G. A1 - Metzler, Ralf ED - Metzler, Ralf T1 - Non-universal tracer diffusion in crowded media of non-inert obstacles JF - Physical Chemistry Chemical Physics N2 - We study the diffusion of a tracer particle, which moves in continuum space between a lattice of excluded volume, immobile non-inert obstacles. In particular, we analyse how the strength of the tracer–obstacle interactions and the volume occupancy of the crowders alter the diffusive motion of the tracer. From the details of partitioning of the tracer diffusion modes between trapping states when bound to obstacles and bulk diffusion, we examine the degree of localisation of the tracer in the lattice of crowders. We study the properties of the tracer diffusion in terms of the ensemble and time averaged mean squared displacements, the trapping time distributions, the amplitude variation of the time averaged mean squared displacements, and the non-Gaussianity parameter of the diffusing tracer. We conclude that tracer–obstacle adsorption and binding triggers a transient anomalous diffusion. From a very narrow spread of recorded individual time averaged trajectories we exclude continuous type random walk processes as the underlying physical model of the tracer diffusion in our system. For moderate tracer–crowder attraction the motion is found to be fully ergodic, while at stronger attraction strength a transient disparity between ensemble and time averaged mean squared displacements occurs. We also put our results into perspective with findings from experimental single-particle tracking and simulations of the diffusion of tagged tracers in dense crowded suspensions. Our results have implications for the diffusion, transport, and spreading of chemical components in highly crowded environments inside living cells and other structured liquids. KW - fluorescence correlation spectroscopy KW - single-particle tracking KW - anomalous diffusion KW - living cells KW - physiological consequences KW - langevin equation KW - infection pathway KW - excluded volume KW - brownian-motion KW - random-walks Y1 - 2014 SN - 1463-9076 VL - 3 IS - 17 SP - 1847 EP - 1858 PB - The Royal Society of Chemistry CY - Cambridge ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Shin, Jaeoh A1 - Cherstvy, Andrey G. A1 - Metzler, Ralf ED - Metzler, Ralf T1 - Kinetics of polymer looping with macromolecular crowding: effects of volume fraction and crowder size JF - Soft Matter N2 - The looping of polymers such as DNA is a fundamental process in the molecular biology of living cells, whose interior is characterised by a high degree of molecular crowding. We here investigate in detail the looping dynamics of flexible polymer chains in the presence of different degrees of crowding. From the analysis of the looping–unlooping rates and the looping probabilities of the chain ends we show that the presence of small crowders typically slows down the chain dynamics but larger crowders may in fact facilitate the looping. We rationalise these non-trivial and often counterintuitive effects of the crowder size on the looping kinetics in terms of an effective solution viscosity and standard excluded volume. It is shown that for small crowders the effect of an increased viscosity dominates, while for big crowders we argue that confinement effects (caging) prevail. The tradeoff between both trends can thus result in the impediment or facilitation of polymer looping, depending on the crowder size. We also examine how the crowding volume fraction, chain length, and the attraction strength of the contact groups of the polymer chain affect the looping kinetics and hairpin formation dynamics. Our results are relevant for DNA looping in the absence and presence of protein mediation, DNA hairpin formation, RNA folding, and the folding of polypeptide chains under biologically relevant high-crowding conditions. KW - gene-regulation kinetics KW - physiological consequences KW - spatial-organization KW - anomalous diffusion KW - folding kinetics KW - living cells KW - dna coiling KW - in-vitro KW - dynamics KW - mixtures Y1 - 2014 SN - 1744-683X SP - 472 EP - 488 PB - The Royal Society of Chemistry CY - Cambridge ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Palyulin, Vladimir V. A1 - Ala-Nissila, Tapio A1 - Metzler, Ralf ED - Metzler, Ralf T1 - Polymer translocation: the first two decades and the recent diversification JF - Soft matter N2 - Probably no other field of statistical physics at the borderline of soft matter and biological physics has caused such a flurry of papers as polymer translocation since the 1994 landmark paper by Bezrukov, Vodyanoy, and Parsegian and the study of Kasianowicz in 1996. Experiments, simulations, and theoretical approaches are still contributing novel insights to date, while no universal consensus on the statistical understanding of polymer translocation has been reached. We here collect the published results, in particular, the famous–infamous debate on the scaling exponents governing the translocation process. We put these results into perspective and discuss where the field is going. In particular, we argue that the phenomenon of polymer translocation is non-universal and highly sensitive to the exact specifications of the models and experiments used towards its analysis. KW - solid-state nanopores KW - single-stranded-dna KW - posttranslational protein translocation KW - anomalous diffusion KW - monte-carlo KW - structured polynucleotides KW - dynamics simulation KW - equation approach KW - osmotic-pressure KW - membrane channel Y1 - 2014 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus4-76266 SN - 1744-683X VL - 45 IS - 10 SP - 9016 EP - 9037 PB - the Royal Society of Chemistry CY - Cambridge ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Bauer, Maximilian A1 - Godec, Aljaž A1 - Metzler, Ralf T1 - Diffusion of finite-size particles in two-dimensional channels with random wall configurations JF - Physical chemistry, chemical physics : PCCP ; a journal of European chemical societies N2 - Diffusion of chemicals or tracer molecules through complex systems containing irregularly shaped channels is important in many applications. Most theoretical studies based on the famed Fick–Jacobs equation focus on the idealised case of infinitely small particles and reflecting boundaries. In this study we use numerical simulations to consider the transport of finite-size particles through asymmetrical two-dimensional channels. Additionally, we examine transient binding of the molecules to the channel walls by applying sticky boundary conditions. We consider an ensemble of particles diffusing in independent channels, which are characterised by common structural parameters. We compare our results for the long-time effective diffusion coefficient with a recent theoretical formula obtained by Dagdug and Pineda [J. Chem. Phys., 2012, 137, 024107]. KW - anomalous diffusion KW - fractional dynamics KW - transport KW - nonergodicity KW - coefficient Y1 - 2014 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1039/C3CP55160A SN - 1463-9084 SN - 1463-9076 VL - 16 IS - 13 SP - 6118 EP - 6128 PB - RSC Publications CY - Cambridge ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Cherstvy, Andrey G. A1 - Chechkin, Aleksei V. A1 - Metzler, Ralf T1 - Particle invasion, survival, and non-ergodicity in 2D diffusion processes with space-dependent diffusivity JF - Soft matter N2 - We study the thermal Markovian diffusion of tracer particles in a 2D medium with spatially varying diffusivity D(r), mimicking recently measured, heterogeneous maps of the apparent diffusion coefficient in biological cells. For this heterogeneous diffusion process (HDP) we analyse the mean squared displacement (MSD) of the tracer particles, the time averaged MSD, the spatial probability density function, and the first passage time dynamics from the cell boundary to the nucleus. Moreover we examine the non-ergodic properties of this process which are important for the correct physical interpretation of time averages of observables obtained from single particle tracking experiments. From extensive computer simulations of the 2D stochastic Langevin equation we present an in-depth study of this HDP. In particular, we find that the MSDs along the radial and azimuthal directions in a circular domain obey anomalous and Brownian scaling, respectively. We demonstrate that the time averaged MSD stays linear as a function of the lag time and the system thus reveals a weak ergodicity breaking. Our results will enable one to rationalise the diffusive motion of larger tracer particles such as viruses or submicron beads in biological cells. KW - anomalous diffusion KW - intracellular-transport KW - adenoassociated virus KW - infection pathway KW - escherichia-coli KW - endosomal escape KW - living cells KW - trafficking KW - cytoplasm KW - models Y1 - 2014 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1039/c3sm52846d SN - 2046-2069 VL - 2014 IS - 10 SP - 1591 EP - 1601 PB - Royal Society of Chemistry ER -