Stationary particle currents in sedimenting active matter wetting a wall.

Recently it was predicted, on the basis of a lattice gas model, that scalar active matter in a gravitational field would rise against gravity up a confining wall or inside a thin capillary-in spite of repulsive particle-wall interactions [Phys. Rev. Lett.

Jamming and flocking in the restricted active Potts model.

We study the active Potts model with either site occupancy restriction or on-site repulsion to explore jamming and kinetic arrest in a flocking model. The incorporation of such volume exclusion features leads to a surprisingly rich variety of self-organized spatial patterns. While bands and lanes of moving particles commonly occur without or under weak volume exclusion, strong volume exclusion along with low temperature, high activity, and large particle density facilitates jams due to motility-induced phase separation.

Flocking of two unfriendly species: The two-species Vicsek model.

We consider the two-species Vicsek model (TSVM) consisting of two kinds of self-propelled particles, A and B, that tend to align with particles from the same species and to antialign with the other. The model shows a flocking transition that is reminiscent of the original Vicsek model: it has a liquid-gas phase transition and displays micro-phase-separation in the coexistence region where multiple dense liquid bands propagate in a gaseous background. The interesting features of the TSVM are the existence of two kinds of bands, one composed of mainly A particles and one mainly of B particles, the appearance of two dynamical states in the coexistence region: the PF (parallel flocking) state in which all bands of the two species propagate in the same direction, and the APF (antiparallel flocking) state in which the bands of species A and species B move in opposite directions.

How Stickiness Can Speed Up Diffusion in Confined Systems.

The paradigmatic model for heterogeneous media used in diffusion studies is built from reflecting obstacles and surfaces. It is well known that the crowding effect produced by these reflecting surfaces slows the dispersion of Brownian tracers. Here, using a general adsorption desorption model with surface diffusion, we show analytically that making surfaces or obstacles attractive can accelerate dispersion.

Narrow escape problem in two-shell spherical domains.

Intracellular transport in living cells is often spatially inhomogeneous with an accelerated effective diffusion close to the cell membrane and a ballistic motion away from the centrosome due to active transport along actin filaments and microtubules, respectively. Recently it was reported that the mean first passage time (MFPT) for transport to a specific area on the cell membrane is minimal for an optimal actin cortex width. In this paper, we ask whether this optimization in a two-compartment domain can also be achieved by passive Brownian particles.

Flocking with a q-fold discrete symmetry: Band-to-lane transition in the active Potts model.

We study the q-state active Potts model (APM) on a two-dimensional lattice in which self-propelled particles have q internal states corresponding to the q directions of motion. A local alignment rule inspired by the ferromagnetic q-state Potts model and self-propulsion via biased diffusion according to the internal particle states elicits collective motion at high densities and low noise. We formulate a coarse-grained hydrodynamic theory with which we compute the phase diagrams of the APM for q=4 and q=6 and analyze the flocking dynamics in the coexistence region, where the high-density (polar liquid) phase forms a fluctuating stripe of coherently moving particles on the background of the low-density (gas) phase.

Effective diffusivity of Brownian particles in a two dimensional square lattice of hard disks.

We revisit the classic problem of the effective diffusion constant of a Brownian particle in a square lattice of reflecting impenetrable hard disks. This diffusion constant is also related to the effective conductivity of non-conducting and infinitely conductive disks in the same geometry. We show how a recently derived Green's function for the periodic lattice can be exploited to derive a series expansion of the diffusion constant in terms of the disk's volume fraction φ.

Role of nonconservative scattering forces and damping on Brownian particles in optical traps.

We consider a model of a particle trapped in a harmonic optical trap but with the addition of a nonconservative radiation induced force. This model is known to correctly describe experimentally observed trapped particle statistics for a wide range of physical parameters, such as temperature and pressure. We theoretically analyze the effect of nonconservative force on the underlying steady state distribution as well as the power spectrum for the particle position.

Nonequilibrium Dynamics Induced by Scattering Forces for Optically Trapped Nanoparticles in Strongly Inertial Regimes.

The forces acting on optically trapped particles are commonly assumed to be conservative. Nonconservative scattering forces induce toroidal currents in overdamped liquid environments, with negligible effects on position fluctuations. However, their impact in the underdamped regime remains unexplored.

Dispersion in two-dimensional periodic channels with discontinuous profiles.

The effective diffusivity of Brownian tracer particles confined in periodic micro-channels is smaller than the microscopic diffusivity due to entropic trapping. Here, we study diffusion in two-dimensional periodic channels whose cross section presents singular points, such as abrupt changes of radius or the presence of thin walls, with openings, delimiting periodic compartments composing the channel. Dispersion in such systems is analyzed using the Fick-Jacobs (FJ) approximation.

Bystander cells enhance NK cytotoxic efficiency by reducing search time.

Natural killer (NK) cells play a central role during innate immune responses by eliminating pathogen-infected or tumorigenic cells. In the microenvironment, NK cells encounter not only target cells but also other cell types including non-target bystander cells. The impact of bystander cells on NK killing efficiency is, however, still elusive.

Quantitative approximation schemes for glasses.

By means of a systematic expansion around the infinite-dimensional solution, we obtain an approximation scheme to compute properties of glasses in low dimensions. The resulting equations take as input the thermodynamic and structural properties of the equilibrium liquid, and from this they allow one to compute properties of the glass. They are therefore similar in spirit to the Mode Coupling approximation scheme.