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Updated: Jun 29, 2025

Quantitative Locomotion Study of Freely Swimming Micro-organisms Using Laser Diffraction
Published on: October 25, 2012
Hyper-Ballistic Superdiffusion of Competing Microswimmers
Kristian Stølevik Olsen1,2, Alex Hansen3, Eirik Grude Flekkøy4,5
1Institut für Theoretische Physik II-Weiche Materie, Heinrich-Heine-Universität Düsseldorf, D-40225 Düsseldorf, Germany.
Abstract:
Hyper-ballistic diffusion is shown to arise from a simple model of microswimmers moving through a porous media while competing for resources. By using a mean-field model where swimmers interact through the local concentration, we show that a non-linear Fokker-Planck equation arises. The solution exhibits hyper-ballistic superdiffusive motion, with a diffusion exponent of four. A microscopic simulation strategy is proposed, which shows excellent agreement with theoretical analysis.
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