Anomalous diffusion in run-and-tumble motion

Phys Rev E Stat Nonlin Soft Matter Phys. 2012 Aug;86(2 Pt 1):021117. doi: 10.1103/PhysRevE.86.021117. Epub 2012 Aug 16.

Abstract

A random walk scheme, consisting of alternating phases of regular Brownian motion and Lévy walks, is proposed as a model for run-and-tumble bacterial motion. Within the continuous-time random walk approach we obtain the long-time and short-time behavior of the mean squared displacement of the walker as depending on the properties of the dwelling time distribution in each phase. Depending on these distributions, normal diffusion, superdiffusion, and ballistic spreading may arise.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't