Multi-filament coordination rescues active transport from inertia-induced spinning arrest

Fuente: arXiv
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Main Authors: Rajput, Anuradha, Bhattacharjee, Arnab, Dutta, Annwesha
Format: Preprint
Published: 2026
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author Rajput, Anuradha
Bhattacharjee, Arnab
Dutta, Annwesha
author_facet Rajput, Anuradha
Bhattacharjee, Arnab
Dutta, Annwesha
contents Active filaments driven by tangential forces can become trapped in a spinning state when attached to a heavy head, where activity and inertia drive persistent rotation rather than directed transport. Using three-dimensional Langevin dynamics of tangentially driven bead-spring chains anchored to a common heavy head, we demonstrate that increasing the filament number $\Nf$ systematically \emph{rescues} directed transport by sterically preventing the coiled conformations that underlie spinning. The rescue is established through three independent diagnostics: (i)~the mean-square displacement recovers monotonic growth (transport rescue), (ii)~the spatial tangent autocorrelation loses its negative dip signaling helical coiling (conformational rescue), and (iii)~the tangent time autocorrelation ceases crossing zero (orientational rescue). At high bending stiffness ($\kb = 1000$), coiling is fully eliminated at a critical filament number $\Nf^* \approx 3$. At moderate stiffness ($\kb = 100$), residual coiling persists ($\min C_s \approx -0.13$) yet transport is still rescued -- demonstrating that the destruction of spinning \emph{coherence}, not coiling elimination, is the essential mechanism. The multi-filament architecture achieves up to five orders of magnitude transport enhancement. Two physically distinct rescue pathways emerge: at high stiffness, steric constraints force filaments into a coordinated bundle sustaining directed propulsion; at low stiffness, steric interactions destroy orientational coherence, producing enhanced active diffusion. These results demonstrate a purely mechanical, density-independent route to overcome inertia-induced motility arrest, with implications for synthetic microswimmer design, motor-driven filament assays, and multi-filament organization in biological systems.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2603_24053
institution arXiv
publishDate 2026
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Multi-filament coordination rescues active transport from inertia-induced spinning arrest
Rajput, Anuradha
Bhattacharjee, Arnab
Dutta, Annwesha
Soft Condensed Matter
Statistical Mechanics
Biological Physics
Active filaments driven by tangential forces can become trapped in a spinning state when attached to a heavy head, where activity and inertia drive persistent rotation rather than directed transport. Using three-dimensional Langevin dynamics of tangentially driven bead-spring chains anchored to a common heavy head, we demonstrate that increasing the filament number $\Nf$ systematically \emph{rescues} directed transport by sterically preventing the coiled conformations that underlie spinning. The rescue is established through three independent diagnostics: (i)~the mean-square displacement recovers monotonic growth (transport rescue), (ii)~the spatial tangent autocorrelation loses its negative dip signaling helical coiling (conformational rescue), and (iii)~the tangent time autocorrelation ceases crossing zero (orientational rescue). At high bending stiffness ($\kb = 1000$), coiling is fully eliminated at a critical filament number $\Nf^* \approx 3$. At moderate stiffness ($\kb = 100$), residual coiling persists ($\min C_s \approx -0.13$) yet transport is still rescued -- demonstrating that the destruction of spinning \emph{coherence}, not coiling elimination, is the essential mechanism. The multi-filament architecture achieves up to five orders of magnitude transport enhancement. Two physically distinct rescue pathways emerge: at high stiffness, steric constraints force filaments into a coordinated bundle sustaining directed propulsion; at low stiffness, steric interactions destroy orientational coherence, producing enhanced active diffusion. These results demonstrate a purely mechanical, density-independent route to overcome inertia-induced motility arrest, with implications for synthetic microswimmer design, motor-driven filament assays, and multi-filament organization in biological systems.
title Multi-filament coordination rescues active transport from inertia-induced spinning arrest
topic Soft Condensed Matter
Statistical Mechanics
Biological Physics
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2603.24053