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Hauptverfasser: Lutier, Aymeric, van Wijland, Frédéric, Fournier, Jean-Baptiste
Format: Preprint
Veröffentlicht: 2025
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Online-Zugang:https://arxiv.org/abs/2512.09597
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author Lutier, Aymeric
van Wijland, Frédéric
Fournier, Jean-Baptiste
author_facet Lutier, Aymeric
van Wijland, Frédéric
Fournier, Jean-Baptiste
contents Active matter systems comprise self-propelled particles that move on a substrate while leaving chemical trails that influence other particles through chemotaxis (e.g., slime-depositing bacteria). Orientational chemotaxis manifests as a torque that steers the particle toward the chemical gradient. As each particle is coupled to its own trail, the dynamics exhibits an instability: when the particle gently diffuses, it abruptly transitions to trajectories with a radius of curvature comparable to its own size, becoming apparently trapped. We argue that, contrary to intuition, this trajectory instability occurs for any chemotactic coupling strength. Depending on the coupling regime, this arises either through a potential-barrier first-passage problem or from a rare event analysis.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2512_09597
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Self-Trapping of Microorganisms Steering Toward their Own Trail
Lutier, Aymeric
van Wijland, Frédéric
Fournier, Jean-Baptiste
Soft Condensed Matter
Active matter systems comprise self-propelled particles that move on a substrate while leaving chemical trails that influence other particles through chemotaxis (e.g., slime-depositing bacteria). Orientational chemotaxis manifests as a torque that steers the particle toward the chemical gradient. As each particle is coupled to its own trail, the dynamics exhibits an instability: when the particle gently diffuses, it abruptly transitions to trajectories with a radius of curvature comparable to its own size, becoming apparently trapped. We argue that, contrary to intuition, this trajectory instability occurs for any chemotactic coupling strength. Depending on the coupling regime, this arises either through a potential-barrier first-passage problem or from a rare event analysis.
title Self-Trapping of Microorganisms Steering Toward their Own Trail
topic Soft Condensed Matter
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2512.09597