Localization of Active Particles on Random Arrays of Parallel Filaments

Fuente: arXiv
Guardado en:
Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Santoso, Owen, Koslover, Elena
Formato: Preprint
Publicado: 2026
Materias:
Acceso en línea:
Etiquetas: Agregar Etiqueta
Sin Etiquetas, Sea el primero en etiquetar este registro!
_version_ 1866910273364819968
author Santoso, Owen
Koslover, Elena
author_facet Santoso, Owen
Koslover, Elena
contents Quenched disorder in the environment can fundamentally alter transport dynamics in both active and passive systems. We explore how disordered arrays of filaments govern the distribution of intermittently moving particles which switch between diffusive and processive transport. Motivated by the mixed-polarity arrangements of parallel microtubules observed in mammalian dendrites, we show that such arrays tend to result in localization of particles at regions of convergent filament orientation. In the rapid attachment-detachment limit, the disordered system can be described by a noisy one-dimensional effective energy landscape, whose structure is approximated by a random walk. The depth and width of wells on this landscape are expressed as a function of the transport kinetics and system geometry. Localization is shown to be strongest at intermediate run-lengths, where biased transport persists long enough to sense the quenched filament polarity but not so long as to facilitate escape from local traps. These results demonstrate robust localization of particles moving on random filament networks, highlighting the emergent spatial organization that arises from an interplay of active transport and quenched disorder.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2606_00286
institution arXiv
publishDate 2026
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Localization of Active Particles on Random Arrays of Parallel Filaments
Santoso, Owen
Koslover, Elena
Disordered Systems and Neural Networks
Statistical Mechanics
Biological Physics
Subcellular Processes
Quenched disorder in the environment can fundamentally alter transport dynamics in both active and passive systems. We explore how disordered arrays of filaments govern the distribution of intermittently moving particles which switch between diffusive and processive transport. Motivated by the mixed-polarity arrangements of parallel microtubules observed in mammalian dendrites, we show that such arrays tend to result in localization of particles at regions of convergent filament orientation. In the rapid attachment-detachment limit, the disordered system can be described by a noisy one-dimensional effective energy landscape, whose structure is approximated by a random walk. The depth and width of wells on this landscape are expressed as a function of the transport kinetics and system geometry. Localization is shown to be strongest at intermediate run-lengths, where biased transport persists long enough to sense the quenched filament polarity but not so long as to facilitate escape from local traps. These results demonstrate robust localization of particles moving on random filament networks, highlighting the emergent spatial organization that arises from an interplay of active transport and quenched disorder.
title Localization of Active Particles on Random Arrays of Parallel Filaments
topic Disordered Systems and Neural Networks
Statistical Mechanics
Biological Physics
Subcellular Processes
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2606.00286