TY - GEN A1 - Grebenkov, Denis S. A1 - Sposini, Vittoria A1 - Metzler, Ralf A1 - Oshanin, Gleb A1 - Seno, Flavio T1 - Exact distributions of the maximum and range of random diffusivity processes T2 - Postprints der Universität Potsdam : Mathematisch-Naturwissenschaftliche Reihe N2 - We study the extremal properties of a stochastic process xt defined by the Langevin equation ẋₜ =√2Dₜ ξₜ, in which ξt is a Gaussian white noise with zero mean and Dₜ is a stochastic‘diffusivity’, defined as a functional of independent Brownian motion Bₜ.We focus on threechoices for the random diffusivity Dₜ: cut-off Brownian motion, Dₜt ∼ Θ(Bₜ), where Θ(x) is the Heaviside step function; geometric Brownian motion, Dₜ ∼ exp(−Bₜ); and a superdiffusive process based on squared Brownian motion, Dₜ ∼ B²ₜ. For these cases we derive exact expressions for the probability density functions of the maximal positive displacement and of the range of the process xₜ on the time interval ₜ ∈ (0, T).We discuss the asymptotic behaviours of the associated probability density functions, compare these against the behaviour of the corresponding properties of standard Brownian motion with constant diffusivity (Dₜ = D0) and also analyse the typical behaviour of the probability density functions which is observed for a majority of realisations of the stochastic diffusivity process. T3 - Zweitveröffentlichungen der Universität Potsdam : Mathematisch-Naturwissenschaftliche Reihe - 1142 KW - random diffusivity KW - extremal values KW - maximum and range KW - diffusion KW - Brownian motion Y1 - 2021 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus4-503976 SN - 1866-8372 IS - 1142 ER - TY - GEN A1 - Grebenkov, Denis S. A1 - Metzler, Ralf A1 - Oshanin, Gleb T1 - A molecular relay race: sequential first-passage events to the terminal reaction centre in a cascade of diffusion controlled processes T2 - Postprints der Universität Potsdam : Mathematisch-Naturwissenschaftliche Reihe N2 - We consider a sequential cascade of molecular first-reaction events towards a terminal reaction centre in which each reaction step is controlled by diffusive motion of the particles. The model studied here represents a typical reaction setting encountered in diverse molecular biology systems, in which, e.g. a signal transduction proceeds via a series of consecutive 'messengers': the first messenger has to find its respective immobile target site triggering a launch of the second messenger, the second messenger seeks its own target site and provokes a launch of the third messenger and so on, resembling a relay race in human competitions. For such a molecular relay race taking place in infinite one-, two- and three-dimensional systems, we find exact expressions for the probability density function of the time instant of the terminal reaction event, conditioned on preceding successful reaction events on an ordered array of target sites. The obtained expressions pertain to the most general conditions: number of intermediate stages and the corresponding diffusion coefficients, the sizes of the target sites, the distances between them, as well as their reactivities are arbitrary. T3 - Zweitveröffentlichungen der Universität Potsdam : Mathematisch-Naturwissenschaftliche Reihe - 1159 KW - diffusion KW - reaction cascade KW - first passage time Y1 - 2021 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus4-521942 SN - 1866-8372 ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Grebenkov, Denis S. A1 - Metzler, Ralf A1 - Oshanin, Gleb T1 - Towards a full quantitative description of single-molecule reaction kinetics in biological cells JF - Physical chemistry, chemical physics : a journal of European Chemical Societies N2 - The first-passage time (FPT), i.e., the moment when a stochastic process reaches a given threshold value for the first time, is a fundamental mathematical concept with immediate applications. In particular, it quantifies the statistics of instances when biomolecules in a biological cell reach their specific binding sites and trigger cellular regulation. Typically, the first-passage properties are given in terms of mean first-passage times. However, modern experiments now monitor single-molecular binding-processes in living cells and thus provide access to the full statistics of the underlying first-passage events, in particular, inherent cell-to-cell fluctuations. We here present a robust explicit approach for obtaining the distribution of FPTs to a small partially reactive target in cylindrical-annulus domains, which represent typical bacterial and neuronal cell shapes. We investigate various asymptotic behaviours of this FPT distribution and show that it is typically very broad in many biological situations, thus, the mean FPT can differ from the most probable FPT by orders of magnitude. The most probable FPT is shown to strongly depend only on the starting position within the geometry and to be almost independent of the target size and reactivity. These findings demonstrate the dramatic relevance of knowing the full distribution of FPTs and thus open new perspectives for a more reliable description of many intracellular processes initiated by the arrival of one or few biomolecules to a small, spatially localised region inside the cell. Y1 - 2018 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1039/c8cp02043d SN - 1463-9076 SN - 1463-9084 VL - 20 IS - 24 SP - 16393 EP - 16401 PB - Royal Society of Chemistry CY - Cambridge ER - TY - GEN A1 - Sposini, Vittoria A1 - Krapf, Diego A1 - Marinari, Enzo A1 - Sunyer, Raimon A1 - Ritort, Felix A1 - Taheri, Fereydoon A1 - Selhuber-Unkel, Christine A1 - Benelli, Rebecca A1 - Weiss, Matthias A1 - Metzler, Ralf A1 - Oshanin, Gleb T1 - Towards a robust criterion of anomalous diffusion T2 - Zweitveröffentlichungen der Universität Potsdam : Mathematisch-Naturwissenschaftliche Reihe N2 - Anomalous-diffusion, the departure of the spreading dynamics of diffusing particles from the traditional law of Brownian-motion, is a signature feature of a large number of complex soft-matter and biological systems. Anomalous-diffusion emerges due to a variety of physical mechanisms, e.g., trapping interactions or the viscoelasticity of the environment. However, sometimes systems dynamics are erroneously claimed to be anomalous, despite the fact that the true motion is Brownian—or vice versa. This ambiguity in establishing whether the dynamics as normal or anomalous can have far-reaching consequences, e.g., in predictions for reaction- or relaxation-laws. Demonstrating that a system exhibits normal- or anomalous-diffusion is highly desirable for a vast host of applications. Here, we present a criterion for anomalous-diffusion based on the method of power-spectral analysis of single trajectories. The robustness of this criterion is studied for trajectories of fractional-Brownian-motion, a ubiquitous stochastic process for the description of anomalous-diffusion, in the presence of two types of measurement errors. In particular, we find that our criterion is very robust for subdiffusion. Various tests on surrogate data in absence or presence of additional positional noise demonstrate the efficacy of this method in practical contexts. Finally, we provide a proof-of-concept based on diverse experiments exhibiting both normal and anomalous-diffusion. T3 - Zweitveröffentlichungen der Universität Potsdam : Mathematisch-Naturwissenschaftliche Reihe - 1313 Y1 - 2023 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus4-585967 SN - 1866-8372 IS - 1313 ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Grebenkov, Denis S. A1 - Metzler, Ralf A1 - Oshanin, Gleb T1 - Search efficiency in the Adam-Delbruck reduction-of-dimensionality scenario versus direct diffusive search JF - New journal of physics : the open-access journal for physics N2 - The time instant-the first-passage time (FPT)-when a diffusive particle (e.g., a ligand such as oxygen or a signalling protein) for the first time reaches an immobile target located on the surface of a bounded three-dimensional domain (e.g., a hemoglobin molecule or the cellular nucleus) is a decisive characteristic time-scale in diverse biophysical and biochemical processes, as well as in intermediate stages of various inter- and intra-cellular signal transduction pathways. Adam and Delbruck put forth the reduction-of-dimensionality concept, according to which a ligand first binds non-specifically to any point of the surface on which the target is placed and then diffuses along this surface until it locates the target. In this work, we analyse the efficiency of such a scenario and confront it with the efficiency of a direct search process, in which the target is approached directly from the bulk and not aided by surface diffusion. We consider two situations: (i) a single ligand is launched from a fixed or a random position and searches for the target, and (ii) the case of 'amplified' signals when N ligands start either from the same point or from random positions, and the search terminates when the fastest of them arrives to the target. For such settings, we go beyond the conventional analyses, which compare only the mean values of the corresponding FPTs. Instead, we calculate the full probability density function of FPTs for both scenarios and study its integral characteristic-the 'survival' probability of a target up to time t. On this basis, we examine how the efficiencies of both scenarios are controlled by a variety of parameters and single out realistic conditions in which the reduction-of-dimensionality scenario outperforms the direct search. KW - first-passage times KW - Adam-Delbruck scenario KW - dimensional reduction KW - bulk KW - and surface diffusion Y1 - 2022 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1088/1367-2630/ac8824 SN - 1367-2630 VL - 24 IS - 8 PB - IOP Publ. Ltd. CY - Bristol ER -