arXiv subjects

Ajay Gopinathan

Publications and source records attributed to Ajay Gopinathan.

At least 37 records · Page 2Linked to original sources

arXiv2013

Swarming in disordered environments

The emergence of collective motion, also known as flocking or swarming, in groups of moving individuals who orient themselves using only information from their neighbors is a very general phenomenon that is manifested at multiple spatial and temporal scales. Swarms that occur in natural environments typically have to contend with spatial disorder such as obstacles that hinder an individual's motion or communication with neighbors. We study swarming particles, with both aligning and repulsive interactions, on percolated networks where topological disorder is modeled by the random removal of lattice bonds. We find that an infinitesimal amount of disorder can completely suppress swarming for particles that utilize only alignment interactions suggesting that alignment alone is insufficient. The addition of repulsive forces between particles produces a critical phase transition from a collectively moving swarm to a disordered gas-like state. This novel phase transition is entirely driven by the amount of topological disorder in the particles environment and displays critical features that are similar to those of 2D percolation, while occurring at a value of disorder that is far from the percolation critical point.

cond-mat.stat-mech↗

arXiv2012

Conformational Collapse of Surface-Bound Helical Filaments

Chiral polymers are ubiquitous in nature and in the cellular context they are often found in association with membranes. Here we show that surface bound polymers with an intrinsic twist and anisotropic bending stiffness can exhibit a sharp continuous phase transition between states with very different effective persistence lengths as the binding affinity is increased. Above a critical value for the binding strength, determined solely by the torsional modulus and intrinsic twist rate, the filament can exist in a zero twist, surface bound state with a homogeneous stiffness. Below the critical binding strength, twist walls proliferate and function as weak or floppy joints that sharply reduce the effective persistence length that is measurable on long lengthscales. The existence of such dramatically different conformational states has implications for both biopolymer function {\it in vivo} and for experimental observations of such filaments {\it in vitro}.

cond-mat.soft↗

arXiv2010

Frequency-dependent Chemolocation and Chemotactic Target Selection

Chemotaxis is typically modeled in the context of cellular motion towards a static, exogenous source of chemoattractant. Here, we propose a time-dependent mechanism of chemotaxis in which a self-propelled particle ({\it e.g.}, a cell) releases a chemical that diffuses to fixed particles (targets) and signals the production of a second chemical by these targets. The particle then moves up concentration gradients of this second chemical, analogous to diffusive echolocation. When one target is present, we describe probe release strategies that optimize travel of the cell to the target. In the presence of multiple targets, the one selected by the cell depends on the strength and, interestingly, on the frequency of probe chemical release. Although involving an additional chemical signaling step, our chemical ``pinging'' hypothesis allows for greater flexibility in regulating target selection, as seen in a number of physical or biological realizations.

q-bio.CB↗

arXiv2010

Vicious Lévy flights

We study the statistics of encounters of Lévy flights by introducing the concept of vicious Lévy flights - distinct groups of walkers performing independent Lévy flights with the process terminating upon the first encounter between walkers of different groups. We show that the probability that the process survives up to time $t$ decays as $t^{-α}$ at late times. We compute $α$ up to the second order in $ε$-expansion, where $ε=σ-d$, $σ$ is the Lévy exponent and $d$ is the spatial dimension. For $d=σ$, we find the exponent of the logarithmic decay exactly. Theoretical values of the exponents are confirmed by numerical simulations.

cond-mat.stat-mech↗

arXiv2010

Vicious walks with long-range interactions

The asymptotic behaviour of the survival or reunion probability of vicious walks with short-range interactions is generally well studied. In many realistic processes, however, walks interact with a long ranged potential that decays in $d$ dimensions with distance $r$ as $r^{-d-σ}$. We employ methods of renormalized field theory to study the effect of such long range interactions. We calculate, for the first time, the exponents describing the decay of the survival probability for all values of parameters $σ$ and $d$ to first order in the double expansion in $ε=2-d$ and $δ=2-d-σ$. We show that there are several regions in the $σ-d$ plane corresponding to different scalings for survival and reunion probabilities. Furthermore, we calculate the leading logarithmic corrections for the first time.

cond-mat.stat-mech↗

arXiv2010

The out of equilibrium behavior of Casimir type fluctuation induced forces for free classical fields

We present a general method to study the non-equilibrium behavior of Casimir type fluctuation induced forces for classical free scalar field theories. In particular we analyze the temporal evolution of the force towards its equilibrium value when the field dynamics is given by a general class of over damped stochastic dynamics (including the model A and model B class). The steady state force is also analyzed for systems which have non-equilibrium steady states, for instance where they are driven by colored noise. The key to the method is that out of equilibrium force is computed by specifying an energy of interaction between the field and the surfaces in the problem. In general we find that there is a mapping of the dynamical problem onto a corresponding static one, and in the case where the latter can be solved the full dynamical behavior of the force can be extracted. The method is used how to compute the non-equilibrium Casimir force induced between two parallel plates by a fluctuating field, in the cases of Dirichlet, Neumann and mixed boundary conditions. Various other examples, such as the fluctuation induced force between inclusions in fluctuating media are discussed.

cond-mat.stat-mech↗

arXiv2009

The Non-equilibrium Behavior of Fluctuation Induced Forces

While techniques to compute thermal fluctuation induced, or pseudo-Casimir, forces in equilibrium systems are well established, the same is not true for non-equilibrium cases. We present a general formalism that allows us to unambiguously compute non-equilibrium fluctuation induced forces by specifying the energy of interaction of the fluctuating fields with the boundaries. For a general class of classical fields with dissipative dynamics, we derive a very general relation between the Laplace transform of the time-dependent force and the static partition function for a related problem with a different Hamiltonian. In particular, we demonstrate the power of our approach by computing, for the first time, the explicit time dependence of the non-equilibrium pseudo-Casimir force induced between two parallel plates, upon a sudden change in the temperature of the system. We also show how our results can be used to determine the steady-state behavior of the non-equilibrium force in systems where the fluctuations are driven by colored noise.

cond-mat.stat-mech↗

arXiv2008

Diffusion and binding of finite-size particles in confined geometries

Describing the diffusion of particles through crowded, confined environments with which they can interact is of considerable biological and technological interest. Under conditions where the confinement dimensions become comparable to the particle dimensions, steric interactions between particles, as well as particle-wall interactions, will play a crucial role in determining transport properties. To elucidate the effects of these interactions on particle transport, we consider the diffusion and binding of finite-size particles within a channel whose diameter is comparable to the size of the particles. Using a simple lattice model of this process, we calculate the steady-state current and density profiles of both bound and free particles in the channel. We show that the system can exhibit qualitatively different behavior depending on the ratio of the channel width to the particle size. We also perform simulations of this system, and find excellent agreement with our analytic results.

cond-mat.soft↗

arXiv2007

Polymer Translocation in Crowded Environments

We study the effect of the crowded nature of the cellular cytoplasm on the translocation of a polymer through a pore in a membrane. By systematically treating the entropic penalty due to crowding, we show that the translocation dynamics are significantly altered, leading to novel scaling behaviors of the translocation time in terms of chain length. We also observe new and qualitatively different translocation regimes depending upon the extent of crowding, transmembrane chemical potential asymmetry, and polymer length.

cond-mat.soft↗

arXiv2007

Branching, Capping, and Severing in Dynamic Actin Structures

Branched actin networks at the leading edge of a crawling cell evolve via protein-regulated processes such as polymerization, depolymerization, capping, branching, and severing. A formulation of these processes is presented and analyzed to study steady-state network morphology. In bulk, we identify several scaling regimes in severing and branching protein concentrations and find that the coupling between severing and branching is optimally exploited for conditions {\it in vivo}. Near the leading edge, we find qualitative agreement with the {\it in vivo} morphology.

cond-mat.soft↗

arXiv2005

Dynamics of membranes driven by actin polymerization

A motile cell, when stimulated, shows a dramatic increase in the activity of its membrane, manifested by the appearance of dynamic membrane structures such as lamellipodia, filopodia and membrane ruffles. The external stimulus turns on membrane bound activators, like Cdc42 and PIP2, which cause increased branching and polymerization of the actin cytoskeleton in their vicinity leading to a local protrusive force on the membrane. The emergence of the complex membrane structures is a result of the coupling between the dynamics of the membrane, the activators and the protrusive forces. We present a simple model that treats the dynamics of a membrane under the action of actin polymerization forces that depend on the local density of freely diffusing activators on the membrane. We show that, depending on the spontaneous membrane curvature associated with the activators, the resulting membrane motion can be wave-like, corresponding to membrane ruffling and actin-waves, or unstable, indicating the tendency of filopodia to form. Our model also quantitatively explains a variety of related experimental observations and makes several testable predictions.

cond-mat.soft↗

arXiv2004

Quantum Cryptography: Security Criteria Reexamined

We find that the generally accepted security criteria are flawed for a whole class of protocols for quantum cryptography. This is so because a standard assumption of the security analysis, namely that the so-called square-root measurement is optimal for eavesdropping purposes, is not true in general. There are rather large parameter regimes in which the optimal measurement extracts substantially more information than the square-root measurement.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2004

Quantum tomographic cryptography with Bell diagonal states: non-equivalence of classical and quantum distillation protocols

We present a generalized tomographic quantum key distribution protocol in which the two parties share a Bell diagonal mixed state of two qubits. We show that if an eavesdropper performs a coherent measurement on many quantum ancilla states simultaneously, classical methods of secure key distillation are less effective than quantum entanglement distillation protocols. We also show that certain Bell diagonal states are resistant to any attempt of incoherent eavesdropping.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2003

Statistically Locked-in Transport Through Periodic Potential Landscapes

Classical particles driven through periodically modulated potential energy landscapes are predicted to follow a Devil's staircase hierarchy of commensurate trajectories depending on the orientation of the driving force. Recent experiments on colloidal spheres flowing through arrays of optical traps do indeed reveal such a hierarchy,but not with the predicted structure. The microscopic trajectories, moreover,appear to be random, with commensurability emerging only in a statistical sense. We introduce an idealized model for periodically modulated transport in the presence of randomness that captures both the structure and statistics of such statistically locked-in states.

cond-mat.soft↗

arXiv2003

Kinetic Self-Assembly of Metals on Co-polymer Templates

In this work we seek to understand some of the fundamental processes that govern self-assembly at the nanoscale in the context of the formation of metallic structures on patterned co-polymer templates. To this end we focus on the experiments conducted by Lopes {\it et al} (Nature, 2001), where morphologies resulting from the evaporation-deposition of different metals on PS-b-PMMA phase separated templates were studied. We show that the different morphologies obtained can be understood in terms of the relative importance of the energetics and kinetics. We then focus on a particular morphology: micron long wire-like states obtained by the evaporation-deposition of silver on the template. We show the existence of ``non-trivial'' correlations between adjacent wires that can be understood based on a purely kinetic mechanism. We also compare these correlations quantitatively to those obtained from simulations done with the relevant experimental parameters and find them in good agreement.

cond-mat.mtrl-sci↗

arXiv2003

How well can you know the edge of a quantum pyramid?

The methods of quantum cryptography enable one to have perfectly secure communication lines, whereby the laws of quantum physics protect the privacy of the data exchanged. Each quantum-cryptography scheme has its own security criteria that need to be met in a practical implementation. We find, however, that the generally accepted criteria are flawed for a whole class of such schemes.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2003

Defect Formation and Kinetics of Atomic Terrace Merging

Pairs of atomic scale terraces on a single crystal metal surface can be made to merge controllably under suitable conditions to yield steps of double height and width. We study the effect of various physical parameters on the formation of defects in a kinetic model of step doubling. We treat this manifestly non- equilibrium problem by mapping the model onto a 1-D random sequential adsorption problem and solving this analytically. We also do simulations to check the validity of our treatment. We find that our treatment effectively captures the dynamic evolution and the final state of the surface morphology. We show that the number and nature of the defects formed is controlled by a single dimensionless parameter $q$. For $q$ close to one we show that the fraction of defects rises linearly with $ε\equiv 1-q$ as $0.284 \times ε$. We also show that one can arrive at the final state faster and with fewer defects by changing the parameter with time.

cond-mat.mtrl-sci↗

arXiv2001

Scaling Exponent for Coarsening in a 1D q-state system

An exponent $β$ which characterises non-equilibrium coarsening processes is calculated in a deterministic solvable model of coarsening for a 1D q-state Potts system. We study how the fraction of sites P which have never changed their state, scale with the characteristic domain length $<\ell>$. $β$ is defined by P \sim $<\ell>^{β-1}$. We propose a new model of coarsening that prevents correlations from developing between domains thereby ensuring tractability and an exact result for any q.

cond-mat.stat-mech↗