Transition path time over a barrier of a colloidal particle in a viscoelastic bath

Fuente: arXiv
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Main Authors: Ferrer, Brandon R., Arzola, Alejandro V., Boyer, Denis, Gomez-Solano, Juan Ruben
Format: Preprint
Published: 2024
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author Ferrer, Brandon R.
Arzola, Alejandro V.
Boyer, Denis
Gomez-Solano, Juan Ruben
author_facet Ferrer, Brandon R.
Arzola, Alejandro V.
Boyer, Denis
Gomez-Solano, Juan Ruben
contents We experimentally study the statistics of the transition path time taken by a submicron bead to successfully traverse an energy barrier created by two optical tweezers in two prototypical viscoelastic fluids, namely, aqueous polymer and micellar solutions. We find a very good agreement between our experimental distributions and a theoretical expression derived from the generalized Langevin equation for the particle motion. Our results reveal that the mean transition path time measured in such viscoelastic fluids have a non-trivial dependence on the barrier curvature and they can be significantly reduced when compared with those determined in Newtonian fluids of the same zero-shear viscosity. We verify that the decrease of the mean transition path time can be described in terms of an effective viscosity that quantitatively coincides with that measured by linear microrheology at a frequency determined by the reactive mode that gives rise to the unstable motion over the barrier. Therefore, our results uncover the linear response of the particle during its thermally activated escape from a metastable state even when taking place in a non-Markovian bath.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2409_05651
institution arXiv
publishDate 2024
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Transition path time over a barrier of a colloidal particle in a viscoelastic bath
Ferrer, Brandon R.
Arzola, Alejandro V.
Boyer, Denis
Gomez-Solano, Juan Ruben
Soft Condensed Matter
Statistical Mechanics
We experimentally study the statistics of the transition path time taken by a submicron bead to successfully traverse an energy barrier created by two optical tweezers in two prototypical viscoelastic fluids, namely, aqueous polymer and micellar solutions. We find a very good agreement between our experimental distributions and a theoretical expression derived from the generalized Langevin equation for the particle motion. Our results reveal that the mean transition path time measured in such viscoelastic fluids have a non-trivial dependence on the barrier curvature and they can be significantly reduced when compared with those determined in Newtonian fluids of the same zero-shear viscosity. We verify that the decrease of the mean transition path time can be described in terms of an effective viscosity that quantitatively coincides with that measured by linear microrheology at a frequency determined by the reactive mode that gives rise to the unstable motion over the barrier. Therefore, our results uncover the linear response of the particle during its thermally activated escape from a metastable state even when taking place in a non-Markovian bath.
title Transition path time over a barrier of a colloidal particle in a viscoelastic bath
topic Soft Condensed Matter
Statistical Mechanics
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2409.05651