Examination of the Statistical Effects Associated with Tracking Propulsive Particles.

Particle tracking of active colloidal particles can be used to compute mean-squared displacements that are fit to extract properties of the particles including the propulsive speed. Statistical errors in the mean-squared displacement leads to errors in the extracted properties especially for more weakly propelling particles. Brownian dynamics simulations in which the particle parameters are prescribed were used to examine the statistics of tracking self-propelling objects.