3 research outputs found
Stochastic pump effect and geometric phases in dissipative and stochastic systems
The success of Berry phases in quantum mechanics stimulated the study of
similar phenomena in other areas of physics, including the theory of living
cell locomotion and motion of patterns in nonlinear media. More recently,
geometric phases have been applied to systems operating in a strongly
stochastic environment, such as molecular motors. We discuss such geometric
effects in purely classical dissipative stochastic systems and their role in
the theory of the stochastic pump effect (SPE).Comment: Review. 35 pages. J. Phys. A: Math, Theor. (in press
MicroMotility: State of the art, recent accomplishments and perspectives on the mathematical modeling of bio-motility at microscopic scales
Mathematical modeling and quantitative study of biological motility (in particular, of motility at microscopic scales) is producing new biophysical insight and is offering opportunities for new discoveries at the level of both fundamental science and technology. These range from the explanation of how complex behavior at the level of a single organism emerges from body architecture, to the understanding of collective phenomena in groups of organisms and tissues, and of how these forms of swarm intelligence can be controlled and harnessed in engineering applications, to the elucidation of processes of fundamental biological relevance at the cellular and sub-cellular level. In this paper, some of the most exciting new developments in the fields of locomotion of unicellular organisms, of soft adhesive locomotion across scales, of the study of pore translocation properties of knotted DNA, of the development of synthetic active solid sheets, of the mechanics of the unjamming transition in dense cell collectives, of the mechanics of cell sheet folding in volvocalean algae, and of the self-propulsion of topological defects in active matter are discussed. For each of these topics, we provide a brief state of the art, an example of recent achievements, and some directions for future research