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Stepping molecular motor amid Lévy white noise
Bartosz Lisowski1, Davide Valenti2, Bernardo Spagnolo2
1M. Smoluchowski Institute of Physics Jagiellonian University, Kraków, Poland and Unit of Pharmacoepidemiology and Pharmacoeconomics, Faculty of Pharmacy, Jagiellonian University Medical College, Kraków, Poland.
Abstract:
We consider a model of a stepping molecular motor consisting of two connected heads. Directional motion of the stepper takes place along a one-dimensional track. Each head is subject to a periodic potential without spatial reflection symmetry. When the potential for one head is switched on, it is switched off for the other head. Additionally, the system is subject to the influence of symmetric, white Lévy noise that mimics the action of external random forcing. The stepper exhibits motion with a preferred direction which is examined by analyzing the median of the displacement of a midpoint between the positions of the two heads. We study the modified dynamics of the stepper by numerical simulations. We find flux reversals as noise parameters are changed. Speed and direction appear to very sensitively depend on characteristics of the noise.
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