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Updated: May 26, 2026

Operation of the Collaborative Composite Manufacturing (CCM) System
Published on: October 1, 2019
Bidirectional motion of motor assemblies and the weak-noise escape problem
T Guérin1, J Prost, J-F Joanny
1Physicochimie Curie (Institut Curie/CNRS-UMR168/UPMC), Institut Curie, Centre de Recherche, 26 rue d'Ulm F-75248 Paris Cedex 05, France.
Abstract:
We present a detailed calculation that enables us to estimate the reversal time of a molecular motor assembly that displays bidirectional motion in the limit of weak noise. We derive a Fokker-Planck equation by taking a large volume expansion of a master equation, and we consider a simple choice of transition rates that enables us to reduce the number of variables to 2. We use the Wentzell-Freidlin theory to define an effective nonequilibrium potential and analytically estimate the reversal time. We also present the results of stochastic simulations that match very well our simulation results.
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