Escape dynamics of active Brownian particles with multimodal diffusion.

Area of Science:

• Biophysics
• Chemical Physics
• Statistical Mechanics

Background:

• Active particle dynamics are crucial for biochemical reactions.
• Multimodal protein diffusion is observed in Escherichia coli, often peaking in the subdiffusive regime.
• The effect of multimodal diffusion on active transport remains poorly understood.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate how multimodal diffusion influences the escape rates of active Brownian particles.
• To compare escape dynamics of particles with single versus multiple diffusion modes.
• To understand the role of diffusion mode distribution characteristics on transport.

Main Methods:

• Analysis of active Brownian particle escape rates in a double-well potential.
• Comparison between single-mode and multi-mode diffusion scenarios.
• Investigation of various diffusion mode distributions (Gaussian, Laplace, Cauchy, experimental).

Main Results:

• Single-mode subdiffusive particles show increased escape rates with higher active noise due to enhanced trapping.
• Multimodal diffusion modulates average escape rates, with behavior dependent on the central tendency and weights of diffusion modes.
• Heavy-tailed distributions in the superdiffusive regime can increase average escape rates compared to Gaussian distributions.

Conclusions:

• Multimodal diffusion significantly alters active particle escape dynamics.
• The interplay between diffusion modes and active noise dictates transport efficiency.
• Distribution shape, particularly heavy tails, plays a key role in modulating escape rates, with implications for biological transport mechanisms.