Colloidal chemotaxis and a biased random walk model with finite mean first-passage time
Abstract
We introduce a power-law distance-dependent biased random walk model with a tuning parameter (σ) in which finite mean first-passage times are realizable if σ is less than a critical value σ_c . We perform numerical simulations in one dimension to obtain σ_c ≈ 1.14 . A three-dimensional variant of this model is argued to be related to the phenomenon of chemotaxis. Diffusiophoretic theory supplemented with coarse-grained simulations for colloidal chemotaxis establish the connection with the specific value of σ = 2 as a consequence of in-built solvent diffusion.
- Publication:
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EPL (Europhysics Letters)
- Pub Date:
- October 2019
- DOI:
- 10.1209/0295-5075/128/20001
- Bibcode:
- 2019EL....12820001P
- Keywords:
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- 05.40.Fb;
- 87.17.Jj;
- 02.70.Ns