Active Brownian motion models and applications to ratchets

We give an overview over recent studies on the model of Active Brownian Motion (ABM) coupled to reservoirs providing free energy which may be converted into kinetic energy of motion. First, we present an introduction to a general concept of active Brownian particles which are capable to take up energy from the source and transform part of it in order to perform various activities. In the second part of our presentation we consider applications of ABM to ratchet systems with different forms of differentiable potentials. Both analytical and numerical evaluations are discussed for three cases of sinusoidal, staircaselike and Mateos ratchet potentials, also with the additional loads modelled by tilted potential structure. In addition, stochastic character of the kinetics is investigated by considering perturbation by Gaussian white noise which is shown to be responsible for driving the directionality of the asymptotic flux in the ratchet. This stochastically driven directionality effect is visualized as a strong nonmonotonic dependence of the statistics of the right versus left trajectories of motion leading to a net current of particles. Possible applications of the ratchet systems to molecular motors are also briefly discussed.     

Accounting for the energies and entropies of kinesin’s catalytic cycle

When the processive motor protein kinesin walks along the biopolymer microtubule it can occasionally make a backward step. Recent single molecule experiments on moving kinesin have revealed that the forward-to-backward step ratio decreases exponentially with the load force. Carter and Cross (Nature 435, 308-312, 2005) found that this ratio tightly followed 802 × exp[−0.95F], where F is the load force in piconewtons. A straightforward analysis of a Brownian step leads to L/(2k _B T) as the factor in front of the load force, where L is the 8 nm stepsize, k _B is the Boltzmann constant, and T is the temperature. The factor L/(2k _B T) does indeed equal 0.95 pN⁻¹. The same analysis shows how the 802 prefactor derives from the power stroke energy G as exp[G/(2k _B T)]. There are indications that the power stroke derives from the entropically driven coiling of the 30 amino acid neck linker that connects the two kinesin heads. This idea is examined and consequences are deduced.     

Use of rigid-body motion for the investigation and estimation of the measurement errors related to digital image correlation technique

The aim of this work is to investigate the sources of errors related to digital image correlation (DIC) technique applied to strain measurements. The knowledge of such information is important before the measured kinematic fields can be exploited. After recalling the principle of DIC, some sources of errors related to this technique are listed. Both numerical and experimental tests, based on rigid-body motion, are proposed. These tests are simple and easy-to-implement. They permit to quickly assess the errors related to lighting, the optical lens (distortion), the CCD sensor, the out-of-plane displacement, the speckle pattern, the grid pitch, the size of the subset and the correlation algorithm. The errors sources that cannot be uncoupled were estimated by amplifying their contribution to the global error. The obtained results permit to address a classification of the error related to the used equipment. The paper ends by some suggestions proposed in order to minimize the errors.     

Generation and Propagation of Optical Superoscillatory Vortex Arrays

Superoscillation is an intriguing wave phenomenon which enables subwavelength features propagating into far field and hence has potential applications in super‐resolution microscopy as well as particle trapping and manipulation. While previous demonstrations mostly concentrate on designing complicated nanostructures for generating uncontrollable superoscillatory functions, here a new technique which allows for creating polynomially shaped superoscillatory functions that contain phase singularity arrays is demonstrated both theoretically and experimentally. Such a technique is implemented in optical experiments for the first time and controllable superoscillatory lobes with feature much below the diffraction limit is achieved. More importantly, a general theoretical framework, which, to our knowledge, has not been reported before, is developed to show how the created superoscillations propagate to a distance of many Rayleigh ranges and eventually disappear when the distance is sufficiently larger. The validity of the model is confirmed by the experiments. The results may trigger further studies in light field shaping and manipulations in subwavelength scale.     

One-dimensional displacement of active matter on curved substrates

We analytically find the diffusion of overdamped active Brownian particles (ABPs) constrained to move along curved one-dimensional channels. The autonomous motion of these particles is achieved by a projection of their internal propulsion force along the channels' long section. In particular, the diffusion of ABPs moving on one-dimensional channels with a form of a circle, an ellipse, and a limacon of second order is analysed. To characterise the effect of substrate's geometry and self-propulsion on their diffusion, analytical expressions for the ABPs short- and long-time variances, as well as their steady angular probability density functions are offered. Curvature effects are found to reduce the time an ABP reaches its steady state. Our theoretical results are validated using Brownian dynamics simulations. This model may be relevant for experiments dealing with catalytic driven systems, bacteria, and tumour cell dispersion in one-dimensional channels.     

Nonlocal stochastic differential equations with time-varying delay driven by G-Brownian motion

This article studies a class of nonlocal stochastic differential equations driven by G-Brownian motion (G-NSDEs for short). We show the existence and uniqueness results of solutions by means of fixed point theorem. In addition, exponential estimation of (1) has been discussed. Furthermore, we present global solution to Equation (1) with the help of G-Lyapunov functional and ψ-type function.     

Reverse Thinking of the Aggregation-Induced Emission Principle: Amplifying Molecular Motions to Boost Photothermal Efficiency of Nanofibers**

Using reverse thinking of the aggregation-induced emission (AIE) principle, we demonstrate an ingenious and universal protocol for amplifying molecular motions to boost photothermal efficiency of fibers. Core–shell nanofibers having the olive oil solution of AIE-active molecules as the core surrounded by PVDF-HFP shell were constructed by coaxial electrospinning. The molecularly dissolved state of AIE-active molecules allows them to freely rotate and/or vibrate in nanofibers upon photoexcitation and thus significantly elevates the proportion of non-radiative energy dissipation, affording impressive heat-generating efficiency. Photothermal evaluation shows that the core–shell nanofibers with excellent durability can reach up to 22.36 % of photothermal conversion efficiency, which is 26-fold as the non-core–shell counterpart. Such a core–shell fiber can be used for photothermal textiles and solar steam generation induced by natural sunlight with green and carbon-zero emission.     

Velocity autocorrelation function for the motion of long-chain molecules in the free draining limit

The thermal motion of a long-chain molecule dispersed in a solvent is examined in terms of the velocity autocorrelation, in a reference frame attached to a subunit of the chain.     

固壁近旁Stokes流中粘性液滴的运动和变形

发展了一种模拟固壁近旁轴对称Stokes流中粘性液滴的运动和变形及直接计算固壁上应力的边界积分方法．用此方法对不同的液滴-固壁初始相对间距、粘度比、表面张力和浮力联合参数以及环境流动参数情况进行了数值实验．数值结果显示,由于环境流动和浮力的作用,随着时间的推进,液滴在轴向压缩,在径向拉伸．当环境流动的作用弱于浮力作用时,随着时间的推移,液滴上升并向上弯,固壁上由液滴运动所引起的应力不断减小．当环境流动的作用强于浮力作用时,随着时间的推移,液滴变得越来越扁．在这种情形,当大初始间距时,壁面上的应力随液滴的演变而增大;当小初始间距时,由环境流动、浮力及壁面对流动的较强作用的联合影响,此应力随液滴的演变而减小．由于液滴运动所引起的壁面应力的有效作用仅限于对称轴附近的一个小范围内,且此范围随液滴与固壁的初始间距增大而增大．应力的大小随初始间距增大而大为减小．表面张力对液滴变形有阻止作用．液滴粘性会减小液滴的变形和位置迁移．     

Long-Time Bath Correlations in the Pollak–Grabert–Hänggi Theory

We analyze some cases for which the Pollak–Grabert–Hänggi theory on the activated rate processes for generalized Langevin dynamics exhibits unexplained disagreements with numerical results. First we analyze carefully the PGH theory and we show that a kind of Markovian hypothesis implicitly made in the reasoning is sometimes violated. Then we propose modifications of the original theory in order to take into account the possible effects caused by this violation, and we compare the corrected results with simulations.