Related Experiment Video
Updated: Aug 21, 2026

An Analog Macroscopic Technique for Studying Molecular Hydrodynamic Processes in Dense Gases and Liquids
Published on: December 4, 2017
Mean-field approaches to the totally asymmetric exclusion process with quenched disorder and large particles
Leah B Shaw1, James P Sethna, Kelvin H Lee
1Department of Physics, Cornell University, Ithaca, New York 14853-2501, USA. 1bs22@cornell.edu
Abstract:
The process of protein synthesis in biological systems resembles a one-dimensional driven lattice gas in which the particles (ribosomes) have spatial extent, covering more than one lattice site. Realistic, nonuniform gene sequences lead to quenched disorder in the particle hopping rates. We study the totally asymmetric exclusion process with large particles and quenched disorder via several mean-field approaches and compare the mean-field results with Monte Carlo simulations. Mean-field equations obtained from the literature are found to be reasonably effective in describing this system. A numerical technique is developed for computing the particle current rapidly. The mean-field approach is extended to include two-point correlations between adjacent sites. The two-point results are found to match Monte Carlo simulations more closely.
Related Concept Videos
Atomic Nuclei: Nuclear Spin State Population Distribution
Electric Field of Two Equal and Opposite Charges
A separation of the positive and negative charges can lead to a weak, remnant effect of the positive and negative charges. The expectation is that the more the distance between the positive and...
The Pauli Exclusion Principle
The Colloidal State
Atomic Nuclei: Nuclear Relaxation Processes
Electrostatic Boundary Conditions
The surface integral of an electric field is given by Gauss's law in integral form and is related to...

