Modeling a self-propelled autochemotactic walker

Phys Rev E Stat Nonlin Soft Matter Phys. 2011 Oct;84(4 Pt 1):041924. doi: 10.1103/PhysRevE.84.041924. Epub 2011 Oct 21.

Abstract

We develop a minimal model for the stochastic dynamics of microorganisms where individuals communicate via autochemotaxis. This means that microorganisms, such as bacteria, amoebae, or cells, follow the gradient of a chemical that they produce themselves to attract or repel each other. A microorganism is represented as a self-propelled particle or walker with constant speed while its velocity direction diffuses on the unit circle. We study the autochemotactic response of a single self-propelled walker whose dynamics is non-Markovian. We show that its long-time dynamics is always diffusive by deriving analytic expressions for its diffusion coefficient in the weak- and strong-coupling case. We confirm our findings by numerical simulations.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Chemotaxis / physiology*
  • Computer Simulation
  • Models, Biological*
  • Motion